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HOLOCAUST HANDBOOKS • VOLUME 35

CARLO MATTOGNO, RUDOLF HOSS

Commandant of Auschwitz: Rudolf H os s

Commandant

Auschwitz

Rudolf Hoss,

His Torture
and

His Forced Confessions

Carlo Mattogno, Rudolf Hoss

Castle Hill Publishers
P.O. Box 243, Uckfield, TN22 9AW, UK
November 2017

HOLOCAUST HANDBOOKS, Volume 35:

Carlo Mattogno, Rudolf Hoss:

Commandant of Auschwitz: Rudolf Hoss, His Torture and His Forced
Confessions

Translated from the Italian and German by Germar Rudolf
Uckfield, East Sussex: Castle Hill Publishers
PO Box 243, Uckfield, TN22 9AW, UK
November 2017

ISBN10: 1-59148-191-0
ISBN13: 978-1-59148-191-1
ISSN: 1529-7748

Published by Castle Hill Publishers

Manufactured in the United States of America and in the UK

Distribution: Castle Hill Publishers, PO Box 243
Uckfield, TN22 9AW, UK
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Set in Times New Roman

www.HolocaustHandbooks.com

Cover Illustrations: foreground: Rudolf Hoss during his time as commandant
at Auschwitz in 1943 (left); right after his capture and torture by the British in
March 1946 (center); during his trial in Warsaw in 1947 (right); background:
entry gate to the Auschwitz Main Camp.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz 5

Table of Contents

Page

Introduction.9

PART ONE: RUDOLF HOSS’S STATEMENTS.11

I. Arrest and First Statement to the British.12

1. The Arrest.12

2. Statement of March 14, 1946.22

3. The Other Statements of March 1946.32

II. Floss at Nuremberg.36

1. The Motive for the Summons.36

2. The Interrogation of April 1, 1946.37

3. The Interrogation of April 2, 1946.48

4. The Interrogations of April 3, 1946.60

5. The Interrogation of April 4, 1946.64

6. The Affidavit of April 5, 1946.65

7. The Interrogation of April 5, 1946.69

8. The Interrogations of April 8, 1946.72

9. The Curriculum Vitae of April 10, 1946.74

10. The Testimony during the IMT (April 15, 1946).75

11. Rudolf Floss versus Otto Moll.80

12. Floss’s Statements to U.S. Interrogators for the I.G. Farben

Trial.108

13. Floss’s Statements to Psychologists at Nuremberg.115

III. Extradition to Poland and the Warsaw Floss Trial.128

1. The Interrogations.128

2. The Krakow Aufzeichnungen.137

3. The Warsaw Trial.157

PART TWO: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF HOSS’S STATEMENTS... 179

1. General Considerations.181

2. The Genesis of the Auschwitz Camp.182

3. Himmler and the Extermination Order.184

4. The Wording of the Extermination Order.186

5. The Motive for the Extermination Order.187

6. Himmler’s Two, Countermanding Extermination Orders.188

7. The Alleged Conflict between Eichmann and Pohl.192

8. The Eastern Extermination Camps.195

9. The Commando of the Eastern Extermination Camps.197

10. The Efficiency of the Eastern Extermination Camps.199

11. Hoss’s Visit to Treblinka: The Dating.200

12. The Victims of Trebli nk a.201

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

13. The Treblinka Gas Chambers: Location, Number and Modus

Operandi.201

14. Treblinka: Cremation of the Coipses.204

15. Eichmann’s Visit to Auschwitz.205

16. The Extermination of Soviet PoWs.205

17. The First Gassing and the “Discovery” of Zyklon B.210

18. The “Gassings” at the Crematorium in the Main Camp.213

19. The “Discovery” of Zyklon B and the Start of the

Extermination of the Jews.215

20. Choosing Zyklon B for Exterminations.216

21. The First Jewish Transports to Auschwitz: Dating, and the Fate

of the Deportees.219

22. Floss’s Extermination Plans of 1941.223

23. The Bunkers of Birkenau: Origin of the Name.225

24. Otto Moll and the Bunkers.229

25. The Start-Up of the Bunkers.232

26. The Genesis of the Bu nk ers.233

27. The Bunkers: Technical Features.237

28. Himmler’s Visit to Auschwitz of July 17-18, 1942.242

29. Outdoor Cremations.250

30. Hoss’s Visit to Chelmno.255

31. The Crematoria at Birkenau.256

32. The Cremation Furnaces.260

33. The Effective Cremation Capacity.264

34. The Gas Chambers inside the Crematoria at Birkenau.266

35. Zyklon B.271

36. The Quantity of Zyklon B Used for Gassings.274

37. The Lethal Dose of Zyklon B.277

38. The Sonderkommando.282

39. The Transports to Auschwitz.286

40. The Number of Victims.289

41. Himmler’s Order to Stop the Extermination.298

42. Hoss in Budapest.300

43. Hoss’s Transfer to Office Group D at the WVHA.307

44. The Assignment of March 1945.308

45. The Gypsies at Auschwitz.310

46. The Revolt of a Transport from Bergen-Belsen.311

47. Did Hoss’s Wife Know of the Extermination?.315

48. The Initiator and Executor of the “First Gassing”.316

49. Karl Bischoff, the Inventor of the “Plans for the Gas

Chambers”.318

50. SS Sturmbannfuhrer Eduard Wirths.319

51. SS Obergruppenfuhrer Ernst-Robert Grawitz.320

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz 7

52. Organization Schmelt.322

53. SS Gruppenfuhrer Odilo Globocnik.324

Conclusions.325

Appendix.331

Bibliography.331

Archives.338

Documents.339

Index of Names.391

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Introduction

In the Preface to the complete English translation of Rudolf Hoss’s notes
which he wrote while in Polish custody in Krakow, Steven Paskuly, editor of
the work, writes that they “are perhaps the most important document attesting
the Holocaust” (Paskuly, p. 11). In his introduction, he adds (ibid., p. 21):
“There are fanatical groups in the United States, France, and even Australia
who call themselves ‘The Revisionist Historians. ’ They actually propose that
Hoss never wrote these documents — that they are a fraud. They also stated
that even if the documents were written by Hoss, they were obviously done un¬
der duress from the ‘Communist authorities ’ in Poland. The ‘research ’ and the
conclusions of these ‘historians ’ are absolute rubbish. ”

It is not worthwhile responding to accusations apparently arising from crude
ignorance, which extends even to basic notions of current orthodox Holocaust
historiography, as I will show below. It is worthwhile, however, to highlight
Paskuly’s statement that the former commander of Auschwitz “fails to men¬
tion that the camp regulations and punishments were formulated by Hoss him¬
self’ (ibid., p. 22), where he confounds Hoss’s Krakow writing titled “ Lager-
ordnung fur die Konzentrationslager 5,1 (translated by Paskuly as “Rules and
Regulations for Concentration Camps”; ibid., pp. 209-218), which Hoss had
jotted down from memory (see Chapter III. 1.), with the 1941 “ Dienstvor-
schrift fur Konzentrationslager (Lagerordnung )” (“Service Regulations for
Concentration Camps (Camp Regulations)”), of which only the title page and
the table of contents are known. 1 2

1 The transcript of this text can be found in Vol. 21 of the Hoss Trial (AGK, NTN, 103, pp. 54-66).

2 "Berlin 1941. Gedruckt irn Reichssicherheitshauptamt.” GARF, 7445-2-96, pp. 1-3; undated tran¬
script of these regulations by Jan Sehn, signed by a SS-Hauptscharfiihrer Jung and with different
contents than what the above-mentioned “ Inhaltsverzeichnis ” indicates, is included as Annex 1 of
Vol. 49 of the Krakow Trial (Trial against the Auschwitz camp garrison). AGK, NTN, 131, pp.
172-195). A 43-page “ Lagerordnung” for the Ravensbrtick Concentration Camp is also known:
NARA, RG 242/338, Roll No. 18, Frames 628-671.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Already in 1987, 1 published a book devoted to Hoss’s various post-war
statements (Mattogno 1987). It listed 60 objections characterized by internal
contradictions and insurmountable contradictions to the orthodox Holocaust
narrative of that time, thus showing that “the former commander of Auschwitz
lied on all essential points of his ‘eye-witness testimony,’ which must there¬
fore be rejected as a gross fraud.” The tortures inflicted by the British on Hoss
at the time, which in 1987 had already been documented, were therefore not
mentioned a priori in order to invalidate Hoss’s declarations, but a posteriori
in order to explain the contradictions and absurdities found in his statements.

In the present study, for which I had access to an enormously larger docu¬
mentation, I approach the topic from a different angle. The fundamental prob¬
lem which no one has ever considered is whether the core of Hoss’s first
statements mirrored reality, or whether it mirrored some preordained “truth”
which the British questioning Hoss forced him to comply with in order to
“confirm” it. In other words: did those statements come from Hoss or from his
torturers? Hence, are they sincere and accurate, or in compliance with his in¬
quisitors’ predilections? And what is the relationship between Hoss’s first
statements and those he made later?

This study is a well-founded and documented answer to these questions.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

PART ONE:

RUDOLF HOSS’S STATEMENTS

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

I. Arrest and First Statement to the British

1. The Arrest

On March 15, 1946, Field Security Section 92 summarized the events of Ru¬
dolf Hoss’s arrest with reference to a report dated 13 November 1945: 3

“After five months of continuous investigations, interrogations and extensive
searches, this Section has succeeded in arresting SS Obersturmbannfuehrer
HOESS Rudolf Franz Ferdinand, who commanded the notorious AUSCHWITZ
Concentration Camp which was built under his supervision and who, in 1943,
became chief of Amt 1 of Amtsgruppe D (Inspectorate of Concentration
Camps) in the SS Wirtschafts und Verwaltungs Hauptamt
As mentioned in the above quoted previous report, HOESS’ wife and her five
children were located in this Section’s area (Sugar Factory, ST MICHAE-
LISDONN. SUEDERDITMARSCHEN).

When last interrogated in November 1945, Frau HOESS stated that she had
last seen her husband in RENDSBURG on 30 April 1945. By assessing various
psychological aspects of her stoiy, members of this Section gained the firm
impression that she was lying.

After careful plans for her re-interrogation, based on data accumulated during
the elapsed five months, had been worked out, Frau HOESS was arrested dur¬
ing the night of 5 Mar 46. It was only at 1600 hrs on the 11 Mar 46 that she fi¬
nally broke down and admitted having been visited by HOESS in ST MICH-
AELISDONN in July 1945, that she had communicated with him later and that
she knew his present whereabouts. She named as his address — GOTTRUPEL
near FLENSBURG, c/o the farmer, Hans Peter HANSEN. ”

Floss’s wife, Hedwig, was therefore arrested in the middle of the night, obvi¬
ously in order to terrorize her and her five children, and “she finally[!] broke
down” six days later. We will see later what methods were used to achieve
this.

The British had been tracking down Floss for months. A “Report on search
for Ohersturmhannfuhrer SS - FIOSS and investigation of alleged Nazi cell in
ST MICFIAELISDONN,” signed with “Sgt. 92 Field Security Section (South¬
ern Sub-Area),” undated but written sometime between late October 1945 and
prior to Floss’s arrest, begins with this statement:

“339 FS Section, BRUNSBUTTEL had received information via Umland agen¬
cy, that the wife of SS Obersturmbannfiihrer HOSS ex-Kommandant of the no¬
torious AUSCHWITZ Concentration Camp, was living in the Sugar Factory,
ST MICHAELISDONN. Two NCO’s of that Section interviewed Frau HOSS,

MIM. The copy of this document in my possession is devoid of any archival reference.
WVHA, Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

found her in possession of astonishingly large quantities of dresses, furs, cloth
and other valuables, but she disclaimed all knowledge of the whereabouts of
her husband. Some time after this, an officer of JAG (War Crimes) contacted
339 FSS and was eventually, since this Detachment had arrived in the area,
passed on to us. ”

On October 24, 1945, Field Security Section 92 organized a raid at the sugar
factory of St Michaelisdonn, during which they interviewed all employees as
well as Hoss’s wife. She made detailed statements about her husband, but did
not reveal his hiding place. Meanwhile, the British had arrested Karl Sommer,
who had been deputy chief of Office D II of the WVHA. 4 Sommer reported
that all members of Office Group D had assumed pseudonyms, and that Hoss
was now Driver Lang. 5 The former commander of Auschwitz called himself
Franz Lang.

Field Security Section 92, assisted by Section 318, went to Gottrupel on
the night of March 13, where the farm was surrounded at 11 PM. Hoss was
surprised in pajamas. 6 7

“He was forced down immediately and his mouth prised open. The Medical
Officer of 5 RHA, 7 Armd Div rapidly examined him for any hidden poison as
we had obtained information that all members of Amtsgruppe D had been is¬
sued with the same poison with which Reichsfuehrer SS HIMMLER had suc¬
ceeded in killing himself after capture.

HOESS was living under the alias of LANG Franz at this farm (see attached
statementbut admitted his true identity within ten minutes of his arrest.

He was brought back to the barracks of 5 RHA in HEIDE. After preliminary
interrogation, it was thought best to submit an interrogation report in the form
of a statement in his own words, signed by him and witnessed by two NCOs of
this Section, who were present throughout the entire proceedings. HOESS
gave his statement in a very matter of fact way and it appears is quite willing
to give information.

Rudolf Franz Ferdinand HOESS must be regarded as one of the major War
Criminals. While Commandant of A USCHWITZ Concentration Camp, he was
entrusted by the Reichsfuehrer SS HIMMLER with the task of exterminating
the Jews of EUROPE.

The Reichsfuehrer communicated this to him in the course of a personal inter¬
view. During this time in Amtsgruppe D as the head of the Politische Abtei-
lung, he can be held partially responsible for what happened in all other Con¬
centration Camps — eg: — as recently as April 1945, he was advising KRAMER
of BELSEN on how to cope with the situation. ”

On the day of the arrest, Captain William Cross, Chief of Field Security Sec¬
tion 92, signed the form “War Criminal Arrest Report” of the “Military Gov-

5 YVA, 0.51-41.1, pp. 22-26.

6 MIM.

7 Statement of March 14, 1946. See the following section.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

emment of Germany,” which provides all the relevant details; in addition to
the date and time (March 11, 1946, at 23 PM), it contains the following state¬
ment (see Document 1):

“Ich bin Rudolf Hoss und war Kommadant [sic] von Auschwitz, mein Rank
[sic] war SS Obersturmbannfiih[rer\. ”

“I am Rudolf Hoss and was Komma[n\dant of Auschwitz, my rank was SS
Obersturmbannfiih[rer\. ”

The handwriting has some similarities to that of other manuscripts by Hoss,
but it differs from his handwriting in various letters. If the above sentence was
indeed written by Hoss, one can be certain that he was seriously deranged.

On March 15, 1946, Hoss was handed over to Captain Harvey Alexander
of the War Crimes Investigation Team, which placed him under the custody of
the Army of the Rhine. On March 30, the prisoner was transferred to HQ 30
Coips District, in a detention facility called “Tomato” in Minden. 8

After his extradition to Poland (May 25, 1946), while in prison at Krakow,
Hoss recounted his experience during his arrest: 9

“I was arrested on 11 March 1946 (at 11 pm). My phial of poison had been
broken two days before. When / was aroused from sleep, / thought at first, I
was being attacked by robbers, for many robberies were taking place at that
time. That was how they managed to arrest me. / was maltreated by the Field
Security Police. I was dragged to Heide where I was put in those very bar¬
racks from which I had been released by the British eight months earlier. At
my first interrogation, evidence was obtained by beating me. 1 do not know
what is in the protocol, although I signed it. Alcohol and the whip were too

much for me. The whip was my own, which by chance had gotten into my
wife’s luggage. It had hardly ever touched my horse, far less the prisoners.
Nevertheless, one of my interrogators was convinced that / had perpetually
used it for flogging the prisoners.

After some days, / was taken to Minden-on-the-Weser, the main interrogation
center in the British Zone. There I received further rough treatment at the
hands of the 1st English public prosecutor, a major. The conditions in the
prison accorded with this behavior. ” (My emphasis)

This description, as Robert Faurisson unambiguously clarified in a valuable
article (Faurisson 1986, 1987), is fully in line with reality. He drew attention
to a book published in 1983: Rupert Butler’s Legions of Death, which re¬
counted Hoss’s arrest by the team of “Bernard Clarke, a British Jew and a ser¬
geant in 92nd Field Security Section”:

“At 5 pm on 11 March 1946, Frau Hoess opened her front door to six intelli¬
gence specialists in British uniform, most of them tall and menacing and all of

8 AGK, NTN, 104-121; see Document 2.

9 Saija, pp. 158f; Broszat, pp. 149f. 1 will return to Hoss’s texts written in Krakow in Chapter 3.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

them practised in the more sophisticated techniques of sustained and merciless
investigation.

No physical violence was used on the family: it was scarcely necessary. Wife
and children were separated and guarded. Clarke’s tone was deliberately low-
key and conversational.

He began mildly: 7 understand your husband came to see you as recently as
last night. ’

Frau Hoess merely replied: 7 haven’t seen him since he absconded months
ago. ’

Clarke tried once more, saying gently but with a tone of reproach: ‘You know
that isn’t true. ’ Then all at once his manner his changed and he was shouting:
‘Ifyou don 't tell us we’ll turn you over to the Russians and they’ll put you be¬
fore a firing-squad. Your son will go to Siberia. ’

It proved more than enough. Eventually, a broken Frau Hoess betrayed the
whereabouts of the former Auschwitz Kommandant, the man who now called
himself Franz Lang. Suitable intimidation of the son and daughter ^ produced
precisely identical information ” (My emphasis)

And here is the description of the arrest as published by Butler (pp. 235-237):

“Hoess screamed in terror at the mere sight of British uniforms. Clarke
yelled: ‘What is your name? ’

With each answer of Franz Lang ’, Clarke’s hand crashed into the face of his
prisoner. The fourth time that happened, Hoess broke and admitted who he
was.

The admission suddenly unleashed the loathing of the Jewish sergeants in the
arresting party whose parents had died in Auschwitz following an order
signed by Hoess.

The prisoner was torn from the top bunk, the pyjamas ripped from his body.
He was then dragged naked to one of the slaughter tables, where it seemed to
Clarke the blows and screams were endless.

Eventually, the Medical Officer urged the Captain: ‘Call them off, unless you
want to take back a corpse. ’ A blanket was thrown over Hoess and he was
dragged to Clarke’s car, where the sergeant poured a substantial slug of
whisky down his throat. Then Hoess tried to sleep. Clarke thrust his service
stick under the man’s eyelids, and ordered in German: ‘Keep your pig eyes
open, you swine. ’ For the first time Hoess trotted out his oft-repeated justifica¬
tion: 7 took my orders from Himmler. I am a soldier in the same way as you
are a soldier and we had to obey orders. ’

The party arrived back at Heide around three in the morning. The snow was
swirling still, but the blanket was torn from Hoess and he was made to walk
completely nude through the prison yard to his cellfi ^ It took three days to get

10 Hoss’s older son was called Klaus-Bemdt and was 16 years old (date of birth: Feb. 6, 1930); his
older daughter, Heidetraut, had not yet turned 14 (March 9, 1932)!

11 This was undoubtedly the reason why Hoss had “frozen” feet, according to the “Detention Re¬
port.”

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

a coherent statement out of him. But once he started talking, there was no
holding him. ”

While in Nuremberg, Hoss told psychologist Leon Goldensohn: 12

“I was in Schleswig-Holstein, barefooted in a cell. When the British captured
me, I was naked and they just threw a couple of blankets around me and took
me to prison. They didn’t give me any shoes or socks. ”

Faurisson noted that the tortures inflicted on Hoss had been confirmed by
Moritz von Schirmeister, a former associate of Joseph Goebbels at the Reich’s
Ministry of Propaganda. On May 7, 1948, he wrote a letter to Hoss’s wife at
the request of the former commander of Auschwitz: 13

“Of course, it is already more than two years ago that I was brought from
Minden to Nuremberg together with your husband — on March 31 and April 1,
1946. But / promised your husband back then that after my release I would
write you and convey his greetings. ”

At Nuremberg, von Schirmeister was a witness for the defense and was about
to be released soon. In the car carrying him, he sat in the backseat together
with Hoss, with whom he could speak freely during transit; in particular, he
remembered Hoss’s following outburst (see Document 3):

“On the things he is accused of, he told me: ‘Certainly, / signed a statement
that / killed two and a half million Jews. But I could just as well have said that
it was five million Jew’s. There are certain methods by which any confession
can be obtained, whether it is true or not.

Von Schirmeister wrote that Hoss thought it was his duty to help his “com¬
rades” by testifying during the Nuremberg trial that only “very few kn ew
about certain events,” but added that the future of his wife and children “was
the only thing that worried him.” Although Hoss was “treated well” in Nu¬
remberg, meaning that he was no longer subjected to physical abuse, the threat
that his wife and children would be handed over to the Soviets, which the Brit¬
ish may have arranged already, “proved more than enough.”

While in prison at Minden, Hoss was brutally treated to induce him to
“confess,” as Ken Jones reported in 1986 (Mason 1986):

“Mr Ken Jones was then a private with the Fifth Royal Horse Artillery sta¬
tioned at Heidi [sic] in Schleswig Holstein. ‘They brought him to us when he
refused to co-operate over questioning about his activities during the war. He
came in the winter of 1945/46 and was put in a small cell in the barracks, ’ re¬
calls Mr Jones. Two other soldiers were detailed with Mr Jones to join Hoss
[sic] in his cell to help break him down for interrogation. ‘We sat in the cell
with him, night and day, armed with axe handles. Our job was to prod him

See Subsection II. 13.2.

A facsimile of a retyped copy of this letter was published by Vincent Reynouard on his web site
http://sansconcessiontv.org/phdnm/lettre-a-mme-hoss/; see Document 3.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

every time he fell asleep to help break down his resistance, ’ said Mr Jones.
When Hoss was taken out for exercise, he was made to wear only jeans and a
thin cotton shirt in the bitter cold. After three days and nights without sleep,
Hoss finally broke down and made a full confession to the authorities. ”

This “confession” consists of the interrogation minutes signed by Hoss at 2:30
AM on March 14, 1946. 14 It will be analyzed in Part Two. It had to be ex¬
pected that this confession ends with an assertion claiming that it was made
voluntarily and is truthful, but in the light of what was revealed here, this
sounds tragically ironic: the document states indeed that its content corre¬
sponds to the statements made by the interrogatee and constitutes u die reine
Wahrheit” - “the pure truth.” This is followed by the signatures of two wit¬
nesses and by Captain William Cross’s assertion that Hoss had made this
statement “voluntarily”!

It is worthwhile keeping in mind what Hoss wrote about it in his Krakow
notes:

“I do not know what is in the protocol, although / signed it. ”

Jones mentions another person who would have had a major part in the first
interrogation of former Auschwitz commander: Vera Atkinson, who had ap¬
peared during the TV show “Secret Hunters.” Ella “told how Hoss [sic] made
a full and frank confession to the killing of two-and-a half million inmates of
the concentration camp” (Mason 1986). During a video interview in January
1987, she made the following statements as reproduced in a 2012 book
(Footitt/Kelly, pp. 6If.):

“ While she was there [in the British zone], Rudolf Hoss was captured and kept
in a small prison in Minden (not far from Bad Oeynhausen). Vera was asked
to act as interpreter at his interrogation because she was the only trustworthy
person who could speak good enough German. Despite her many years of in¬
telligence work, this experience was not without emotional consequences for
her.

He was disguised as a local countryman, with big moustache disguise. The in¬
terrogation started as: ‘So you are Blinky Blonk — the assumed name ’, and he
said ‘Yes!’ ‘and you’ve been on the farm, working on the farm?’ ‘Yes’ ‘and
you had the lack of feeling to steal a bike from one of the farmers ’. That was
what we pretended to accuse him of and he claimed that that was absolutely
wrong. ‘Well possibly, possibly, possibly that’s true. But we know that you are
not XX, because we know that you are Rudolph [sic] Hoss, former comman¬
dant of Auschwitz’. Hoss was taken outside to the courtyard, and the sergeant
removed his moustache. He no longer denied who he was. 1 million 500 thou¬
sand people killed under his surveillance was the accusation, but he claimed
that that was their own figure, but the correct one was over 2 million, about 2
million 300 thousand. We were all struck silent for a moment. ”

MIM. See Document 2. Facsimile of the original in YVA, 0.51-41.3, pp. 1-8.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

This story is clearly imaginative; in addition, Atkinson confused Hoss with
Pohl, as derives from her reference to the theft of a bike. Pohl had been arrest¬
ed on May 27, 1946 on a farm “ostensibly on a charge of stealing a bicycle.” 15

Thomas Harding reported that a Jewish great uncle of his, the British Army
captain Howard Harvey Alexander, called Hanns, had a prominent role in
Hoss’s capture.

Earlier, on December 10, 1945, he had arrested Gustav Simon, the former
Gauleiter and chief of the civilian administration in Luxembourg, who com¬
mitted suicide a week later. 16 In a report dated “5/DEC/45" [sic] and signed by
himself, he reported on the facts of the arrest. At first, he pointed out his quali¬
fications: 17

“Report of Captain Alexander H.H. of J.A.G. [Judge Advocate General] Staff
Pool, H.Q. B.A.OR. [British Army of the Rhine] attached to No. 1 War
Crimes Investigation Team, c/o H.Q. 4th Wilts. [4th Battalion of the Wiltshire
Regiment] at Belsen Camp. ”

Other documents confirm that Captain Alexander belonged to this unit head¬
quartered at “Hohne (Belsen) Camp.” 17

On March 8, 1946, he went to the headquarters of British Field Security
Section 92 located at Heide. The British had created more than a hundred
Field Security Sections, which controlled the territory of northern Germany
with police and counter-espionage jurisdiction. Alexander explained to Cross,
the head of this unit, that he had been put in charge of tracking down Hoss.
Although it was unknown where he was hiding, his family, who lived at an
old farm at St. Michaelisdonn, was kept under surveillance. Cross objected
that this was not his unit’s task, but was convinced otherwise by the im¬
portance of the fugitive. A day earlier, hence on March 7th, Alexander had ar¬
rested Hoss’s wife Hedwig. She was interrogated in a cell, but refused to re¬
veal her husband’s hiding place. Then Alexander went to the farm and inter¬
rogated Hoss’s children, all minors (3 to 16 years old) who had been left be¬
hind alone. Not getting the answers he wanted, he jailed them as well, but
Hoss’s wife still wouldn’t talk. 18

“With their tactics of isolation and intimidation failing to produce a result,
Hanns realised that they must develop an alternative approach. At twilight on
11 March 1946, a noisy old steam train was driven past the rear of the prison.
Hanns burst into Hedwig's cell and informed her that the train was about to
take her son to Siberia and that she would never see Klaus again. Allowing the

15 “Special interrogation report on SS Ogruf, Gen Lt der Waffen SS Oswald Pohl.” TNA, WO
311/706, p. 15 of the report.

16 “Report on arrest of Gustav Simon, alias Hans Woffler formerly Gauleiter of Luxemburg by Capt
H H Alexander, Pioneer Corps War Crimes Investigation Unit.” TNA, WO 309/1631.

17 TNA, WO 309/1631.

18 Harding 2013b, pp. 236-239. In the book, the author calls the two main characters, Alexander and
Hoss, by their first names, Hanns and Rudolf.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

message to sink in for a few moments, Hanns then added that she could pre¬
vent her son’s deportation if she told him where her husband was living and
under what alias. Hanns then left Hedwig sitting on her cot with a piece of pa¬
per and a pencil. When he returned ten minutes later, he saw that she had
written a note with Rudolf's location and his alias: the Kommandant of Ausch¬
witz was living at Hans Peter Hansen’s farm in Gottrupel under the name
‘Franz Lang’. ”

Having obtained that information, Cross and Alexander hatched a plan for

Hoss’s arrest:

“Over the next hour the men of Field Security Section 92 were assembled and
briefed on the operation. Many of them were German Jews like Hanns, from
the Pioneer Corps — men who had been driven out of their country and who
had lost family members in Auschwitz. Some had kept their original names,
such as Kuditsch and Wiener. Others had taken on British-sounding names,
like Roberts, Cresswell and Shiffers. There were also English-born soldiers
from Jewish families, similarly enraged, men such as Bernard Clarke, from the
south coast, and Karl ‘Blitz’ Abrahams, from Liverpool.”

Alexander also got in touch with Field Security Section 318 and brought with

him a physician from the 5th Royal Horse Artillery Regiment. This gang,

which consisted of 25 men, acted the night of March 11, 1946:

“Rudolf was ‘woken with a start’ by the commotion outside. At first, he was
unconcerned, assuming ‘that it was one of the robberies which were frequent
at this time in the area ’. Then he heard a stern voice ordering him to open up.
Realising that he had no alternative, Rudolf opened the door. Two men in Brit¬
ish uniform stood facing him. Rudolf could tell by their insignia that one was a
captain, the other a doctor. Behind them stood at least twenty soldiers, their
guns drawn. He was confused by the lights and the presence of all these men.
Without warning the tall, handsome, fierce-looking captain thrust a pistol in
his mouth. He was then searched for cyanide pills. ‘Go and see that he is
clean, ’ Hanns said to the doctor, holding Rudolf while his mouth was searched
for vials of poison. After a few seconds, the doctor gave the all-clear.

The captain began talking in perfect German It was immediately obvious to
Rudolf that the man was a native speaker. He introduced himself as Captain
Alexander of the British War Crimes Investigation Team, and demanded his
identity documents — Franz Lang, temporary card number B22595. Hanns had
seen this name on the plate next to the barn door, but knew it to be untrue. The
man looked too similar to the figure in the photograph that he carried with
him. Older, sicker, thinner, to be sure, but similar.

Hanns flashed the photograph and told Rudolf that he believed him to be the
Kommandant of Auschwitz. Again Rudolf denied the claim, pointing once more

This is in sharp contrast to Vera Atkinson’s claim that she “was asked to act as interpreter at his
interrogation because she was the only trustworthy person who could speak good enough Ger¬
man.”

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

at his identity papers. Perhaps he would be able to wriggle out of this: after
all, the British had let him slip through their fingers in the past.

However, Harms remained convinced. He rolled back the man’s shirtsleeves to
see if there was a blood group tattooed on his arm, but there was nothing. The
conversation went round in circles. Yet Harms wasn’t going to give up. His
eyes roved about the barn entrance searching for a way to prove the man’s
identity. At last Hanns looked down and noticed his wedding ring.

‘Give it to me, ’ he said.

7 can’t, it has been stuck for years, ’ Rudolf answered.

‘No problem, ’ Hanns said, ‘I’ll just cut off your finger.

Alexander asked one of his soldiers to bring a knife, and at this point Hoss
caved in and handed it over. Inside the ring there were the names “Rudolf’
and “Hedwig.”

“Having identified his man, Hanns was ready to make the arrest. But he
sensed that his colleagues wanted to vent their hatred. Indeed, he wanted to
join in. He had to make a quick decision: should he allow them free rein, or
should he protect Rudolf? Turning to his men, Harms said, ‘In ten minutes I
want to have Hoss in my car — undamaged’ and walked off. He knew that this
made him responsible for what was about to happen, but he was prepared to
face the consequences.

Rudolf was immediately surrounded by the remaining soldiers, who dragged
him to one of the barn’s slaughter tables, tore the pyjamas from his body and
beat him with axe handles. Rudolf screamed, but the blows kept coming. After
a short period, the doctor spoke to Harms: ‘Call them off, ’, he said, ‘unless
you want to take back a corpse. ’

Just as suddenly as it had started, the beating stopped. A rough woollen blan¬
ket was wrapped around Rudolf’s shoulders and he was carried out of the
barn. ”

Hoss was loaded onto a truck and taken to a prison in Heide. Along the way
Alexander interrogated him. Hoss admitted that he had been the commander
of Auschwitz and claimed he was “personally responsible for the deaths of
10,000 people.”

The gang stopped in a bar in the city center to celebrate the arrest (Harding
2013b, pp. 240-244):

“After they were finished celebrating, Harms walked back to the truck, pulled
Rudolf out of the vehicle, removed the blanket from his shoulders, and made
him walk naked to the prison on the other side of the snow-covered square.
Once inside the prison, Hanns, along with a sergeant from the Field Security
Section, began Rudolf’s first formal interrogation. Alcohol was forced down
the prisoner’s throat and they beat him with his own whip, confiscated from
the barn in Gottrupel. A pair of handcuffs were on his wrists at all times, and
with the temperature in the cell well below freezing, Rudolf’s uncovered feet
quickly developpedfrostbite. ”

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Here Harding reproduces a very telling photograph captioned “Rudolf Hoss,
after British arrest, March 1946” {ibid., p. 244, see Document 4). There are
other photographs of the time, one of which is particularly significant {ibid., p.
245, see Document 4a).

“Three days later, on 15 March 1946, Hanns delivered Rudolf to Camp Toma¬
to, a British-run prison near the town of Minden. There, Colonel Gerald
Draper — the War Crimes Group’s lawyer — began a further round of intensive
questioning. A few hours afterwards, Rudolf’s statement was typed into an
eight-page confession and a one-paragraph summary. It was the first time that
a concentration camp Kommandant had provided details of the Final Solution.
Rudolf had confessed to coordinating the killing of two million people. ”

The date of March 15 is obviously incorrect, unless it refers to the English
translation of the “confession” (see below).

A Jewish sergeant from Liveipool, Karl Louis Abrahams, was also part of
the unit which arrested Hoss. On March 24, 1946, he wrote a letter to his wife,
Betty, in which he informed her of the capture of “the greatest swine that ever
was” (Jackman):

“His interrogation was an experience I shall never forget. We were at it for
about three days and two nights on the trot. No sleep — the atmosphere was
weird and unreal as we heard him confessing that he had personally super¬
vised the gassing and burning of over two and a half million human beings —
mostly our fellow Jews. ”

On March 27, 1985, William Cross wrote an informative letter to Colonel
Robson on Hoss’s arrest, in which he confirmed the picture outlined above: 20
“With regard to the interrogation of Frau Hoess, we received information that
this person was living in a fiat in a brewery in our area. We knew from experi¬
ence that widows usually had photographs of their late husband, and we visit¬
ed Frau Hoess and three sons; I think the eldest was about sixteen.

She was asked where her husband was and she replied that he was dead.
Searching the flat we could not find a photograph, and felt that he was alive.
After a few months and no trace of him we decided to arrest her and the three
sonsand place them in jail, Frau Hoess was put in a separate cell. For five
days she was visited and asked one question — ‘Where is your husband’, and
for five days her answer was ‘He is dead’; we knew this was untrue.

On the morning of the sixth day we put on an act; the rear of the cells backed
on to a railway line and a train was organised to come to the rear of the cells
with as much noise as possible, and stop outside.

20 The letter, written by W. Cross to Colonel Robson, the then-curator of the Museum of Military In¬
telligence at Chicksands, is located in this institute’s archive without any classification.

21 Rather one son and two daughters: Klaus-Bemdt, 16 years old, Heidetraut, almost 14 years old,
and Inge-Brigitte, 12 years old (bom on Aug. 18, 1933).

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

We then informed Frau Hoess that the train outside was there to take her three
sons to Siberia, unless she told us where her husband was and his aliases; if
she did not do this then she could have two minutes to say goodbye to her
sons, or tell us what we wanted to know. We left her for ten minutes or so with
paper and pencil to write down the information we required. Fortunately our
bluff worked; she wrote down the information and she and her sons were sent
home.

That is how Rudolf Hoess, alias Franz Lang was captured. ”

Inge-Brigitte, Hoss’s youngest daughter, was located and interviewed by
Thomas Harding while he was doing research for his already-mentioned book.
In this interview, she stated (Harding 2013a):

“ 7 remember when they came to our house to ask questions, ’ she says, her
voice tight. 7 was sitting on the table with my sister. I was about 13 years old.
The British soldiers were screaming:

‘Where is your father? Where is your father? ’ over and over again. I got a
very bad headache. / went outside and cried under a tree. [...]’

The stoiy continues. ‘My older brother Klaus was taken with my mother. He
was beaten badly by the British. My mother heard him scream in pain from the
room next door. Just like any mother, she wanted to protect her son, so she
told them where my father was.

2. Statement of March 14, 1946

The history of this document has quite some enigmatic aspects. There is, first
of all, a handwritten text by Hoss of 10 pages, with a progressive numbering
from 2 to 11 by the British, but without date and signature. The page numbers
are at the top within a circle. 22 It consists of a duplicate text, that is, a first ver¬
sion going from pages 2 to 5, and a second, which looks like a neat copy, from
pages 6 to 11. Pages 2 and 6, as well as 3 and 7 correspond almost completely
to each other (except for minor variations), while pages 4 and 5 have no match
in the second version, and pages 9 and 10 have none in the first version. Page
8 corresponds to page 11. The second version has an incomplete page number¬
ing, with the numbers placed at the top left before the text; page 7 has the
number 2, page 9 the number 4, and page 10 the Roman numeral “II”; the oth¬
er pages do not contain numbers.

Next, there is an 8-page typed German-language text that should be the
transcript of the manuscript. The last page has the handwritten date “March
14, 46” and the time, 2:30, followed by Hoss’s signature. Beneath that the
following typed phrase appears:

“Ich habe das vorher Angefuehrte gelesen und bestaetige dass es meinen eige-

nen Ausfuehrungen entspricht und dass es die reine Wahrheit ist. 14 mar 46. ”

YVA, 0.51-41.1; see Document 5.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“I have read the text written above and confirm that it corresponds to my
statements and that it is the absolute truth. 14 Mar 46. ”

Underneath this, yet another handwritten date and time as well as Hoss’s sig¬
nature appear. This is the only page signed by him.

At the bottom, there are two lines with the label “witnessed,” but only the
second is fdled out and signed by Sergeant Kudisch and dated, March 14,
1946.

The document closes with this typewritten text (see Document 6): 23
“I certify that the above-named NCOs — Sjt KUDISCH M and Sjt ROBERTS
HK - were present throughout the entire proceedings whilst the prisoner Ru¬
dolf HOESS made this statement voluntarily. 14 Mar 1946. Capt CC 92 Field
Security Section. ”

The main mystery is that this German “transcript” contains fundamental pas¬
sages - such as Hoss’s meeting with Himmler in Berlin, his visit to Treblinka,
and the figure of three million Auschwitz victims - which have no equivalent
passages in the two handwritten texts. Were these missing passages added lat¬
er by Hoss? But if that is so, then why are they not in any of the two handwrit¬
ten texts? Or were they compiled by the British? If we consider that Hoss stat¬
ed he signed this document without knowing what was in it, this suggests that
the second scenario is correct. However, the problem of authenticity of this
text is only second in importance to that of its truthfulness, since Hoss willing¬
ly or unwillingly supported this transcript by formally certifying it as the “ab¬
solute truth.” For this reason, I consider Hoss to be the author of this text
when analyzing it in Part Two, although there are serious doubts about it.

This document was then translated into English. This results from the
headline “Production No. AD/2,” which also appears as a header of the Ger¬
man transcript, where it is all hand-written. This 8-page typed text is full of
handwritten additions in English, mostly translations of German terms. At the
end it is dated March 15, 1946, no doubt the day the translation was made. As
is apparent from the attestations appearing on the last page, the translation was
created in sections by three interpreters:

“I hereby certify that I have truly and accurately translated pages 1 — 3 of the
original statement of Rudolf Hoess. ”

This is followed by the signature of B. Grant and his qualification. The second
certificate covers pages 4-6 and is signed by W. Rose. The last one refers to
pages 7-8 and has the signature of P.D. Wuerzburger.

Finally, next to the date, there is the signature of Captain William Cross,
Commander of the “92 Field Security Section” (see Document 7).

MIM. The document was sent to me without any archival reference. A carbon copy of this state¬
ment (with very few variations) is in YVA, 0.51-41.4.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

This translation then became Nuremberg Document NO-1210. At least two
official transcripts of this translation exist. One is preserved at the Centre de
Documentation Juive Contemporaine in Paris and has the archival reference
CXXXII-18; the document is classified as “D/749a 167b.” The text is a tran¬
script of the above-mentioned typewritten text without the handwritten addi¬
tions. Another transcript is headed “Translation of Document No. NO-1210
Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes.” The text, all typed, also includes
the handwritten parts of the original text. At the end, after the three translation
certifications mentioned earlier, there is a “Certificate of Translation” stating:

“I, Jules N. Beaumont, Civ. No. X-045038, hereby certify that I am thoroughly
conversant with the English and German languages and that the above is a
true and correct translation of the original document No. NO-1210. Jules N.
Beaumont. Civ. No. X-045038. ”

The date given (March 15) is clearly wrong. This version contains two hand¬
written notes in German that refer to an original. The first, p. 2, says “ unsinni-
ge Ubersetzung ” (“senseless translation,” next to the sentence: “I was given
the order, by a higher authority the then inspectorate of the concentration
camps”), while the other on p. 3, next to the phrase “(page 2 of the original),”
says “ Original unleserlich ” (“Original illegible”). This indicates that the per¬
son adding these handwritten remarks probably had the German transcript
available, and that he disagreed with the translation. It can be ruled out that
this is Hoss’s handwriting, but it cannot be determined with certainty that it is
Beaumont’s, because this translation does not contain his handwritten signa¬
ture. If these are Beaumont’s remarks, he obviously was not the author of the
translation, as one would assume from his attestation.

In addition to the three texts mentioned above, there is another translation,
unfortunately without date or signature. The text consists of nine pages, the
first of which is tom at the top margin, so the first two lines read only: 24

"... Franz LANG — having been duly warned... that the following statements
are true. ”

The comparison between this translation and the one appearing in the three
documents mentioned earlier is not of particular interest to this study. Hence, I
merely list a few examples (the first quote is from the text “Production No.
AD/2,” the second from the translation certified by Beaumont):

1) “I was given the order, by an higher authority” (p. 1)

2) “My higher authority, The Inspectorate of Concentration Camps, in¬
structed me” (p. 1).

1) “The Fuehrer ordered the solution of the Jewish question in Europe. A
few so-called Vemichtungslager are existing in the general government

YVA, 0.51-41.1, pp. 13-21.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

(BELZEK near RAWA RUSKA Ost Polen, Tublinka [s/c] near MALINA
[s/c] on the River Bug, and WOLZEK near Lublin)” (p. 2).

2) “The Fuehrer has ordered a solution of the Jewish problem in EUROPE.
At present there are already several extermination camps in the territory of the
General Government (BELZEK near RAWA RUSKA, Eastern Poland, TE-
BLINKA [.sic] near MALINA [s/'c] on the river BUG and WOLZEK near
LUBLIN” (p. 2/14).

1) “These camps were not very efficient and could not be enlarged. I visit¬
ed the camp TREBLINKA in Spring 1942 to inform myself about the condi¬
tions” (p. 2)

2) “But the capacity of these camps is very small and they cannot be fur¬
ther extended (NB - At this point of giving his version of EIIMMLER’s in¬
structions, HOESS remarked “I myself visited the camp TREBLINKA in the
spring of 1942 in order to acquaint myself with the conditions” (p. 2).

1) “In January 1945 there were about 63000 in all camps. In AUSCHWITZ
I imagine about 3,000,000 people were put to death, about 2,500,000 were put
through the gas-chambers” (p. 6)

2) “63 0,000 25 inmates was the combined state of all camps in January
1945. According to my knowledge 3000000 people lost their lives in the con¬
centration camp AUSCHWITZ . I estimate that of these 2500,000 [sic] have
been gassed” (p. 7/19).

2.1. The Two Handwritten Versions

In this subsection, I translate the most important passages of the two handwrit¬
ten statements of March 14, 1946: 26

“[p. 2/6] i/Nov. [in Nov.] 1939 / became leader of the protective custody’ camp
in that place until my transfer to Auschwitz i.[n] May 1940.

[p. 3/7] [2] I was commissioned by my superior authority, the former Inspec¬
torate of Concentration Camps, to create on the grounds of the former Polish
artillery barracks near Auschwitz, a quarantine camp for inmates from Po¬
land. After Himmler had visited the camp in [the spring of] 1941, / received
the order to expand the camp as a large concentration camp for the east[,] in
particular to deploy the inmates in agriculture, which had to be developed as
much as possible, thereby turning the entire swamp and flood plain near the
River Vistula into arable land. Furthermore, he ordered to make some 8 —
10,000 inmates available for the construction of a new Buna factoiy of the I.G.
Farben. He concomitantly ordered to create a PoW camp for some 100,000
Russian PoWs in the Birkenau area. [He concomitantly ordered the creation
of a PoW camp in the Birkenau area for some 100,000 Russian PoWs],

25 This is the correct number; 63000 is an error, probably committed during transcription.

26 Words in [brackets] indicate text variations of the second version compared to the first; crossed -
eut words are only in the first version. Some minor text variations cannot be transferred into Eng¬
lish.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

The number of [admitted] inmates grew from day to day. Despite my objection
[objections] that there weren 7 enough accommodations, more internments
were allocated to me . Since the sanitary facilities were not enough [insuffi¬
cient] in every way, diseases were inevitable, [.] hence [Hence] mortality rose
as well. Since it was not permitted to bury inmates, crematoria had to be built.
In 1941, the first [large] internments of Jews from Slovakia a. [and] the dis¬
trict of Upper Sil. [Upper Silesia] were carried out. Those unable to work
were gassed in the vestibule of the crematorium on orders of Himmler, which
he gave me personally.

Also, Russ. Po Ws were transferred for gassings by the state police headquar¬
ters of Breslau a. Troppau. [Russ. Po Ws were also transferred for gassings by
the state police headquarters of Breslau a. Troppau.]

Since the newly to be erected [4] crematoria were finished only in 1942[J the
inmates had to be gassed in provisionally erected gassing rooms, and then
cremated in pits in the ground. After the 4 large [Igf crematoria had been
completed [finished] mass transports commenced from Greece, France, Bel¬
gium a. Holland. All [inmates] capable of working had to be separated at the
transport train.

My objections to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt [RSHAfi 27 ^ were rejected[J
always due to an order from Himmler that these operations had to be carried
out expeditiously a. that every SS leader[] impeding this in any way should be
held responsible.

The physicians tried everything in their power to fight the resulting epidemics;
due to the excessive overcrowding, almost all measures used were futile.

Of the large transports of Jews, some 90,000 from Slovakia, 65,000 from
Greece, — 110,000 from France — 20,000 from Belgium, 90,000 from Holland
400,000 from Hungary — 250,000 from Poland a. Upper Silesia [Upper Sil.],
100,000 from Deutschland a. Theresienstadt were brought to Auschwitz.
During these operations, usually 2-3 trains of2,000 each were brought in.
During the Hungary operation as utmost 5 trains, that is, 10,000 people
[p. 4] Gassing Procedure
a/ in prov. Farmers [houses]

2 old farmhouses made free of gaps and equipped with strong wooden doors.
The transports are unloaded on a side spur i/ Birkenau. Those who can walk
are selected a. led to the camps all luggage is put down a. later brought to the
property warehouses.

All others on foot to the facilities some 1 km away.

At night all in/truck, during days only the sick and those unable to walk.

All have to undress in front of the farmhouses.

The doors have a sign saying ‘Desinfection room ’ then into the rooms depend¬
ing on size 2-300

Reich Security Main Office.

In the second version, these two sentences are on p. 10.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

The doors are screwed shut a. through sm. hatches 1-2 cans of Cyclon B each
is thrown in. Duration of exposure depending on weather 3 — 10 minutes.

After 1/2 an hour the corpses are dragged out by a unit — who work there con¬
stantly — a. burned in pits in the ground. Duration 6-7 hours.

Prior to the incineration, gold teeth and rings are removed.

2 instructed medical orderlies throw in the gas cans a physician is present.

[b/] in the Ig. crematoria

The transports arrive at a ramp near the 4 cremat. Unloading selection taking
away of luggage as above[.]

Those to be gassed walk into a large underground room provided with bench¬
es a. provisions to keep the clothes. F

After that they walk into the actual gassing room which holds 2000 persons. It
is equipped with water pipes a. showers, creating the impression of a washing
facility. F

While undressing, the people are told that they have to remember exactly
where they put their clothes, so that they find them afterwards.

2 sergeants remain in the gas room until the end to prevent any unrest. At the
last moment, the iron doors are closed and 4-5 Cyclon cans are thrown in
through hatches. The Cyclon [is] a granular blue mass — hydrogen cyanide —
acts instantly — numbing.

After 1/2 an hour the fans are turned on a. the corpses are driven to the cre¬
mation furnaces upstairs

The cremation of some 2000 people in 5 furnaces takes some 12 hours.

[p. 5] There were 2 facilities with 5 double furnaces at Auschwitz
2 facilities w/[ith] 4 large furnaces each.

Moreover 1 temp, facility as described earlier.

All the accumulating effects were sorted in the effects warehouse
Valuables each month to the Reichsbank in Berlin.

Clothes after cleaning to armament companies, f. eastern workers a. settlers.
Tooth gold gets smelted and sent to the sanitation office. ”

2 . 2 . The Transcript

In this subsection, I translate the most important parts of the typewritten “tran¬
script.” 29

"[p. 1] In November 1939, I was deployed as leader of a protective custody
camp in the rank of an SS captain. Until my transfer to A USCHWITZ on the
first of May 1940.

I was commissioned by my superior authority, the former Inspectorate of
(Concentration] C[amp]s, to create from the grounds of the former Polish artil¬
lery barracks near A USCHWITZ, a quarantine camp for inmates from Poland.
After Himmler had visited the camp in 1941,1 received the order to expand the

AGK, NTN, 103, pp. 2-8.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

camp as a large concentration camp for the east, in particular to deploy the
inmates in agriculture, which had to be developed as much as possible, there¬
by turning the entire swamp and flood plain near the River Vistula into arable
land. Furthermore, he ordered making some 8 — 10,000 inmates available for
the construction of a new’ Buna factory of the I. G. Farben. He concomitantly
ordered to create a Po W camp for some 100,000 Russian Po Ws in the Birke-
nau area.

The number of inmates grew from day to day despite my objections that there
weren’t enough accommodations, more internments were allocated to me.
Since the sanitary’ facilities were not sufficient in any way, epidemic diseases
were inevitable. Hence, mortality rose as well. Since it was not permitted to
bury inmates, crematoria had to be built.

In 1941, the first transports of Jews came from SLOVAKIA and the region of
Upper Silesia, [.] Those unable to work were gassed in the vestibule of the
crematorium on orders of Himmler, which he gave me personally. In June
1941 [p. 2] / was summoned to Himmler in Berlin where he basically told me
the following. The Fuehrer has ordered the solution of the Jewish question in
Europe. Several so-called extermination camps already exist in the General
Government (BELZEK near RAVA RUSKA eastern Poland, TREBLINKA near
MALINA [Malkinia] on the River BUG, and WOLZEK near LUBLIN). These
camps were under the authority of the Einsatzkommandos [task forces] of the
SECURITY POLICE headed by high SIPO officers and guard details. These
camps had a low capacity, however, and could not be expanded.

I myself visited the Treblinka camp in spring of 1942 to acquaint myself with
the conditions. The exterminations were conducted using the following meth¬
od: There were small chambers the size of rooms which were filled with gas
from vehicle engines through feed pipes. This method was unreliable, because
the engines consisted of old captured vehicles and tanks, which failed fre¬
quently. Hence, the transports could not be processed in such a way that an
exact implementation of the operational plan, this was about the evacuation of
the Warsaw Ghetto, could be carried out. According to statements made by the
camp leader, some 800,000 people had been gassed at the TREBLINKA camp
in the course of half a year. For all the reasons given above, HIMMLER ex¬
plained to me that the only opportunity to expand these facilities so that they
matched the general plan was at A USCHWITZ, first as a railway junction of 4
transiting lines, and also because the sparsely populated camp area could be
completely cordoned off. For these reasons, he had decided to move the mass
extermination to AUSCHWITZ, and I had to immediately start with measures
to cany this out. He wished [to see] exact construction plans conforming to
these guidelines within 4 weeks. He stated moreover: This task is so difficult
and serious that he cannot charge just anyone with /?[.] He already intended to
entrust another higher SS leader with this task, but during the construction
phase it would not be good if 2 leaders were to give orders side by side.
Hence, I received the clear instruction to carry out the extermination of the

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

transports sent by the RSHA. Regarding the sequence of the incoming trans¬
ports, I had to get in touch with SS Oberstunnbannfiihrer [Lieutenant Colonel]
EICHMANN of Office 4 (which was headed by Gruppenfiihrer [Lieutenant
General] MULLER). At the same time, the transports of Russian PoWs from
the regions of the Gestapo headquarters BRESLAU, TROPPAU and KATTO-
WITZ also arrived, which had to be exterminated at Auschwitz on HIMM¬
LER ’s order, written direction of the Gestapo chief in charge. Since the newly
to be erected cremation facilities were finished only in 1942, the inmates had
to be gassed in provisionally erected gassing rooms, and then cremated in pits
in the ground. I herewith describe the procedure of the gassing procedure
[sic]:

2 old farmhouses, located secludedly in the BIRKENAU area, were made free
of gaps and equipped with strong wooden doors. The transports as such were
unloaded on a side spur in BIRKENA U. Inmates fit for work were selected and
taken to the camps, all luggage was put down a. later brought to the property
warehouses. The others destined for gassings went on foot to the facilities
some 1 km away. The sick and those unable to walk were transported there by
truck. During transports arriving at night, all were carried there by truck. In
front of the farmhouses, all had to undress behind erected brushwood screens.
The doors had a sign saying DESINFECTION ROOM. By means of interpret¬
ers, the sergeants in charge had to tell the people that they ought to pay close
attention to their things, so that they would find them after the delousing. This
prevented any agitation right from the start. Those undressed then went into
the rooms, 2 — 300 people, depending on the size. The doors were screwed
shut, and through small hatches, one to 2 cans of Cyclon B each were spread
out[.\ This was a granular mass of hydrogen cyanide. Duration of exposure
depending on weather 3 — 10 minutes. After half an hour, the doors were
opened and the corpses were dragged out by a unit working there constantly
and burned in pits in the ground. Prior to the incineration, gold teeth and
rings were removed, fire wood was stacked up between the corpses, and when
a pile had some 100 corpses in it, the wood was lit using rags soaked with pe¬
troleum. Once the incineration was well under way, other corpses were
thrown to this. The fat collecting at the bottom of the pit was poured back into
the fire with buckets in order to accelerate the incineration process particular¬
ly during wet weather. The duration of the incineration lasted 6-7 hours. Dur¬
ing westerly winds, the stench of the burned corpses could be noticed even in¬
side the camp. After cleaning out the pits, the remaining ashes were crushed.
This happened on a cement slab where inmates pulverized the remaining
bones with wooden pounders. These remains were then poured into the Vistula
at a remote location using trucks.

After erection of the new large cremation facilities, the following procedure
was used:

[p. 3] After the first 2 large-scale crematoria had been finished in 1942 (the 2
others were finished half a year later), mass transports from France, Belgium,

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Holland and Greece commenced. The following procedure was used for this.
The transport trains left [sic] at a ramp with 3 tracks which were built right
between the crematoria, property warehouse and the Birkenau camp. The se¬
lection of those fit for work as well as putting down the luggage happened
right on the ramp. Those fit for work were brought to the various camps, and
those to be exterminated to one of the new crematoria. There they first walked
into a large underground room for undressing. This room was equipped with
benches and provisions to hand up clothes; here, too, the people were told by
interpreters that they were led to take a bath and to be deloused and that they
should pay attention to the location of their clothes. Then they walked into the
next room that was also underground [and] that was equipped with water
pipes and showers, which thus had to create the impression of a bathroom.
Until the veiy end, 2 sergeants had to remain in the room in order to prevent
any unrest.

It happened on occasion that inmates realized what this was about, especially
the transports from BELSEN knew, for most of them came from the east, when
the trains had reached the region of Upper Silesia, that they were most likely
being taken to their extermination. During transports from BELSEN, security
measures were reinforced, and the transports were split up in small groups,
and these groups were then divvied up among the crematoria to prevent riots.
SS men formed a tight chain and pushed resisters by force into the gassing
rooms. This happened only rarely, though, for the reassuring measures simpli¬
fied the procedure. I especially remember one example. A transport from
BELSEN had arrived, and after roughly 2/3, these were mostly men, a mutiny
broke out among the remaining third still present in the undressing room; 3 or
4 of the SS sergeants entered the room with their weapons in order to expedite
the undressing, and because the inmates of their own cremation unit couldn 't
handle this. During this, the lighting cables were ripped out, the SS men as¬
saulted, one of them stabbed, and all robbed of their weapons. Since it was
completely dark in this room, a wild shooting broke out between the guards at
the exit and the inmates inside. When I arrived, I ordered the doors shut, the
gassing procedure of the first 2/3 finished, and then [we] went into the room
with flashlights and pistols and forced the inmates into one corner, from where
they were then led out individually and shot with a small caliber on my orders.
It often happened repeatedly that women hid their little children among their
underw’ear and their clothes and didn ’t take them along into the gas chambers.
The clothes were searched by the permanent unit of the cremation inmates un¬
der the [supervision of the] SS in charge, and any children found that way
were afterwards also sent to the gas room. After half an hour, the electric fans
in the gassing room were turned on, and the corpses were driven to the crema¬
tion furnaces located upstairs using elevators. The cremation of some 2,000
people in 5 furnaces lasted roughly 12 hours. At Auschwitz, there were 2 facil¬
ities with 5 double furnaces each and 2 facilities with 4 large furnaces each;

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

furthermore, one temporary facility existed as described earlier. The second
temporary facility had been eliminated.

All the accumulating clothes and effects were sorted in the effects warehouse
by the inmate unit that worked there permanently and was also lodged there.
The valuables went each month to the Reichsbank to Berlin. Clothes after
cleaning to armament companies for the eastern workers working there, and
the settlers. The tooth gold was smelted and sent also every month to the sani¬
tation office of the Waffen SS. In charge of this was Quartermaster General SS
Gruppenfuhrer BLUMENREUTER. I myself have never personally shot or
beaten anyone.

Due to these mass admissions, the number of inmates fit for work increased
immeasurably. My objections to the RSHA to delay the operations, that is to
say, to let fewer transport trains roll, were always rejected with reference to
an order by the Reichsfiihrer SS that the operations had to be carried out ex¬
peditiously and that every SS leader impeding this in any way would be held
responsible.

Due to this tremendous overcrowding of the existing inmate accommodations
and the at once insufficient sanitary’ facilities especially in the BIRKENAU
camp, new epidemics of typhus, scarlet fever and diphtheria flared up over
and over again. The physicians tried everything in their power to fight the re¬
sulting epidemics, but almost all measures employed failed. In military re¬
spects, the physicians were subordinate to the camp commander, but with re¬
spect to medical issues, they had their own chain of command and were sub¬
ordinate to the head of the WVHA's medical corps, STANDARTENFUHRER
Dr. Lolling, who himself was subordinate to REICHSARZT SS-Obergruppen-
/[iihrer] Dr. GRAWITZ. ”

The statement continues that those condemned to death for non-political rea¬
sons were sent to the camp’s Gestapo on orders of the RSHA. They were
killed with lethal injections, including gasoline. Doctors had to draw up nor¬
mal death certificates giving a disease as the cause of death. In Auschwitz,
several medical experiments were carried out on detainees by Dr. Karl Clau-
berg and Dr. Horst Schumann (sterilizations).

“[p. 4] In order to fight the typhus epidemics, various methods were applied to
exterminate lice. Severely louse-infested healthy persons were treated with
various remedies, such as LAUSETTOPamong other things, an agent ob¬
tainedfrom horse dust, and then it was determined how well the agent worked.
Dr. WIRTHS Sturmbannf.\ uhrer] and garrison physician, picked out women
who were suspected of having cancer in order to removed early-stage cancer
surgically. In this regard, he relied on experiences of his brother [which] he

Lauseto was the German trade name of DDT. It was first used in Auschwitz in 1944. The German
licensee and producer was the Bayer Company. They delivered to Auschwitz 9 metric tons of
DDT on April 18, 15 tons on August 21, and 2 tons on October 3, 1944. Setkiewicz 2011, Note
105, p. 72.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

had made at a Hamburg hospital. Furthermore, this physician also [carried
out] experiments to kill persons by means of hydrogen-cyanide injections, [on]
such [persons] as had been slated for the death penalty by the Gestapo. ”

The maximum occupancy of the Auschwitz Camp was 140,000 detainees.

The statement goes on to assert that Hoss, after his transfer to the WVHA,
was assigned to the Political Department (Politische Abteilung ) of Office DI
(see Part Two, Chapter 42).

[p. 6] Applications for death penalties (Antrdge auf Todestrafen ) for grave
crimes committed by detainees “had to be amply substantiated and submitted
to HIMMLER, who had to approve them”; furthermore, “applications for cor¬
poral punishment were decided by Himmler only in case of women. Regard¬
ing men, that decision was made by Glucks or his permanent deputy Maurer.”
In January of 1945, some 630,000 inmates were present in all camps (the text
erroneously states 63000).

The statement then returns to the extermination of the Jews by giving con¬
crete numbers: 31

“According to my estimate, some 3,000,000 people perished at Auschwitz it¬
self. / estimate that of these, 2,500,000 were gassed. Apart from personal ex¬
periences, these numbers were made entirely officially by Obersturmbann-
/[iihrer] E1CHMANN, the official in charge of Jewish issues at the RSHA,
while reporting to the Reichsfiihrer in April 1945. These were mainly Jews. I
personally remember having gassed 70,000 Russian Po Ws during my time as
commander in Auschwitz on the order of the Gestapo chiefs in charge. The
maximum number of gassings on one day at Auschwitz was 10,000. This was
the maximum that could be carried out on one day with the existing facilities. I
personally remember the large mass transports, 90,000from Slovakia, 65,000
from Greece, 110,000 from France, 20,000 from Belgium, 90,000 from Hol¬
land, 400,000 from Hungaiy, 250,000 from Poland and Upper Silesia,
100,000from Germany and Theresienstadt. ”

I will discuss the alleged assignment entrusted to Hoss in March 1945 in Part
Two, Chapter 42.

3. The Other Statements of March 1946

On March 16, 1946, Hoss signed a handwritten English statement with the fol¬
lowing text:

“Statement made voluntarily at [Minden] Gaol by Rudolf Hoess former com¬
mandant of Auschwitz concentration camp on 16th day of March 1946.

I personally arranged on orders received from Himmler in May 1941 the gas¬
sing of 2 million persons between June/July 1941 and the end of 1943 during
which time I was commandant of Auschwitz. ”

Typed declaration by Hoss dated March 14, 1946, p. 6. MIM.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

This is followed by Hoss’s signature, together with his ra nk and his former
position as the commander of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp. 32

It is evident that the statement’s text was not written by Hoss; his handwrit¬
ing was different, as can already be seen from the way in which the word
“Auschwitz” was written by him and by the u nk nown British hand.

One may ask why the British submitted this text to Hoss, which is in con¬
tradiction to his alleged statement made two days earlier regarding both the
date of Himmler’s order (May instead of June 1941) and the number of vic¬
tims (the gassing victims were reduced from 2,500,000 to 2,000,000). Appar¬
ently, the author(s) of these lines did not even know that Hoss had returned to
Auschwitz in May 1944 - according to the orthodox holocaust narrative in or¬
der to assist in the “gassing” of the Hungarian Jews, which is the most signifi¬
cant event, numerically speaking.

Assessing the events ex post facto, it looks like the British needed a brief
and incisive way to attract the attention of the press.

Already on March 17, 1946, the New York Times published an article on
page 31 titled “Nazi Mass Killer Taken; He Used Gas at Oswiecim.” The
source given is “British Army Headquarters, Germany,” dated March 16. The
article reads:

“British agents todayP^ captured Rudolf Hoess, former commandant of the
Oswiecim concentration camp, ending a nine-month search for the man they
described as probably ‘the greatest individual killer in the history of the
world. ’ Hoess was the missing man at the war crimes trial of Josef Kramer,
‘the Beast of Belsen. ' Kramer repeatedly accused him of gassing millions of
Germans [sic] as Heinrich Himmler's camp administrator. ”

On the following days, many newspapers, including German ones, reported on
Hoss’s arrest, always accompanied by the alleged gassing of 2 million people.

On March 19, 1946, the Berliner Zeitung carried the front-page headline:
“The man who gassed two million people” (“Der Mann, der zwei Millionen
Menschen vergaste”). That news item, dated March 18, came from an “Amer¬
ican news agency” and stated: “During an interrogation, Hoess confessed to
having gassed some two million people at Auschwitz.”

On the same day, Der Tagespiegel published a front-page article titled
“The Commandant of Auschwitz Arrested” (“Der Kommandant von Ausch¬
witz verhaftet”), also referring to a news item of March 18. The “gassing” sto¬
ry was reported with the same words.

The next day, the same journal returned to that subject with another front¬
page article titled “Confession of the Auschwitz Commandant” (“ Gestandnis
des Auschwitzer Kommandanten ”) that referred to “a remarkable confession”
in which Hoss had admitted “that he personally, in carrying out Himmler’s or-

Facsimile in Russell, outside of numbered pages (between pp. 180 & 181). See Document 8.
This is evidently wrong.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

ders, ordered the gassing of two million people in the time between June 1941
and the end of 1943, during which time he was commandant of Auschwitz.”

The British newspapers published the statement of March 16,1946 even in
facsimile; as did for instance The Daily Herald, in a front-page article by a
certain Denis Martin (“This Man Killed 2,000,000”), which also very briefly
summarized the statement of March 14, and The Daily Telegraph in a brief ar¬
ticle on page 6 without headline.

References to the Belsen Trial were present in all these articles. This con¬
firms that the British knew perfectly well which things “the greatest individual
killer in the history of the world” had been made to “confess.”

The British clearly aimed at influencing public opinion, especially in Ger¬
many, in view of the future “re-education” following the victors’ prescrip¬
tions. Hoss’s handwritten signature at the bottom of this document was de¬
signed to contribute a lot to this end.

Yet another document, also in English, also dates back to March 16, 1946:

“Statement of Rudolf Hoess. Statement of Rudolf Hoess, male, made voluntari¬
ly at Minden Gaol on 16th March 1946.

1.1 was commandant of Auschwitz from May 1941 until December 1943.

2. During this time the camp was visited by the following high-ranking per¬
sons:

Schwerin-Krosigk — Finanzminister
Thierack — Justizminister.

They inspected the camp of Auschwitz, its factories and farms and remained
for approximately 3-4 hours.

3. I held the position of Adjutant and Schutzhaftlagerfuhrer in Sachsenhausen
Concentration Camp from 1939 until 1940.

4. During this time / saw the following high-ranking persons visit the camp of
Sachsenhausen:

Frick — Innenminister (Minister of the Interior).

The above statement was made voluntarily by me, Rudolf Hoess, at Minden
Gaol, Germany, on this 16th day of March 1946.

Sgd. Rudolf Hoess [only typed, no handwritten signature]

Witnessed by me, Capt A. Vollmar, 22 Dragoons, an officer of the Judge Ad¬
vocate General's Branch, HQ, BAOR at Minden Gaol, Germany this 16th day
of March 1946.

Sgd. A. Vollmar, Capt, JAG Branch, HQ BACR. ”

The declaration closes with this attestation: 34

“Certified that the above text was read to the said Rudolf Hoess in German
and that he agreed that it was true and voluntarily signed it. ”

On March 20, 1946, Hoss signed yet another declaration, which is doubtlessly
authentic:

TNA, WO 309/374, E 2.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“Statement Made voluntarily at Minden Gaol by Rudolf Hoess, former Com¬
mandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, on the 20th of March 1946.

1. I was Commandant of the Concentration Camp Auschwitz from 1 May 1940
to the first of December 1943.

2. When I took up my duties there were approximately 50 men Waffen SS as
guard platoon and 12-15 men Waffen SS as HQ section.

3. At the time I relinquished my command there were 3000 men Waffen SS
serving as guards, 300 men Waffen SS as Camp staff, and another 200 men
Waffen SS employed on other administrative duties, all told 3500 men Waffen
SS at the Concentration Camp Auschwitz.

4. Out of those who served originally at the Camp, approximately 2500 men
Waffen SS were posted to field units and replaced by others, so that during my
term of service all told 6000 Waffen SS served at one time or another at
Auschwitz. After my departure this exchange of personnel continued, and I
should say another 1000 men Waffen SS were replaced up to the time of the
evacuation of the Camp in 1945, so that all told approximately 7000 men
Waffen SS have served at one time or another at the Concentration Camp
Auschwitz.

5. Once a man had been selected from the guard troops for service with the
Camp staff he remained with the staff, unless posted away from the Camp.
[followed by Hoss’s signature].

Witnessed by me, Capt. A. Vollmar. XXII Dragoons, an officer of the Judge
Advocate General’s Department, HQ, BAOR, at Minden Gaol in Germany on
this 20th day of March 1946’’ (followed by the signature)

At the end, there is a statement similar to that of the March 16 statement: 35
“I hereby certify that I have accurately translated this deposition from English
into German to the said deponent Rudolf Hoess and that he fully agrees the
contents thereof. ”

As we will see below, these are more pieces of evidence allowing us to recon¬
struct the history of Hoss’s first statement. Schwerin von Krosigk, by the way,
never set foot inside the Auschwitz Camp.

A photocopy of this statement, bearing the stamp “International Military
Tribunal” (IMT), became document D 749 b. On April 15, 1946, during the
deposition of Hoss at the IMT in Nuremberg (see below, Section II. 10), Colo¬
nel Amen presented the document as Exhibit Number USA-810. 36

TNA, WO 309/374, E 1.
IMT, Vol. XI, p. 412.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

II. Hoss at Nuremberg

1. The Motive for the Summons

Hoss’s subpoena to testify during the Nuremberg IMT was initiated by an
American prosecutor who had the idea of using the statements of the former
Auschwitz commander against Ernst Kaltenbrunner. On March 30, he sent an
urgent cable to the Tomato Camp: ' 7

“Press report that Rudolf Hoss former Kommandant of Auschwitz concentra¬
tion camp has been captured Consider Hoss can probably provide information
implicating Kaltenbrunner and others and would be grateful if he can be
brought to Nuremberg soonest (soonest) [sic] for interrogation On arrival
here he should be transferred in care of 6850 I.S.D. Palace of Justice and es¬
cort should report to room 216 Palace of Justice Please signal E. T.A. ”

Two days later, on April 1, Hoss was transferred to Nuremberg, and, as seen
earlier, he traveled together with Moritz von Schirmeister. When he arrived at
the destination, he was registered by an employee. In his “Detention Report,”
all his physical data were recorded (he was 1.71 m tall, weighed 67 kg, and he
had both feet “frozen”) as well as the first two detention centers: March 12 to
16 in Heide, March 16 to 30 in Minden, Westphalia. 38

In 1946, Hoss himself described these events as follows: 39
“After three weeks [in Heide and Minden], I was surprisingly shaved, my hair
was cut, and / was allowed to wash myself. Ever since I had been arrested, my
handcuffs had not been opened T 40 ^ On the next day, I was transferred to Nu¬
remberg in a car together with a PoW brought in from London, the witness for
the defense Fritzsche. Compared with what had happened before, the incar¬
ceration at the IMT [International Military Tribunal] was like a walk in the
park. I sat in the wing of the main defendants, and could see them almost daily
when they were escorted to the proceedings. Almost daily there were sightsee¬
ing tours from representatives of all Allied countries. I, too, was shown as a
particularly interesting animal. I had been brought to Nuremberg because
Kaltenbrunner’s defense lawyer had requested me as a witness for his defense.
/ never understood and still today find it inexplicable how I, of all people, was
supposed to exonerate Kaltenbrunner. While the incarceration went well in
eveiy regard — I read as much as time permitted, since a well-stocked library
could be used — the interrogations were really unpleasant — not physically but
all the more so mentally. I cannot even blame the interrogators, they all were

37 Harding 2013b, pp. 250f.

38 AGK, NTN, 104-120-120a. See Document 9.

39 Broszat, p. 150.

40 Harding published a photo of these massive handcuffs (2013b, photo between pp. 166 & 167).

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Jews. They almost dissected me psychologically — wanting to know everything
in minute detail — the Jews included. They made it absolutely clear to me what
was in store for me. ”

2 . The Interrogation of April 1, 1946

When he arrived in Nuremberg, Hoss was taken over by the Americans. On
the day of his arrival on April 1, 1946, he was subjected to the first interroga¬
tion by Sender Jaari, a civil servant, and by Lieutenant Whitney Harris. 41
Auschwitz appears the first time after nearly eight pages of questions about
Hoss’s personal details. Hoss was transferred to Auschwitz on May 1, 1940 on
orders of Gruppenfiihrer Glucks, inspector of the concentration camps. The
place initially consisted only of a former Polish artillery barracks, with a few
shacks and buildings. The first 30 detainees were brought there from Sachsen-
hausen. After this, Polish prisoners arrived, some 2,000 to 3,000 by the end of
1940. In January 1941, the camp’s occupancy reached 8,000-9,000 detainees,
all of them Polish. In March or April of 1941, Himmler visited the camp and
decided to have it expanded. It was to encompass a territory of 20,000 “Mor¬
gen” (some 12,000 acres) between the Vistula River and Sury River (recte:
Sola), a marshy area with seven Polish villages whose inhabitants were trans¬
ferred to the town of Auschwitz, part of the General Government, that is, oc¬
cupied Poland (in fact, during the war, the Auschwitz region was incorporated
into German Upper Silesia). The camp was to reach an occupancy of 30,000
detainees; it was also necessary to build another camp for 100,000 prisoners of
war at Birkenau (pp. 8-12).

In this regard, Jaari asked Hoss (pp. 12f.):

“Q. Did they ever assign prisoners of war to Birkenau?

A. No, only 10,000 Russian prisoners of war came to Auschwitz, and they con¬
structed Birkenau.

Q. When they hadfinished the construction, what happened to them?

A. They always worked there. They remained there.

Q. And they were still there when you left Birkenau in 1944?

A. Not all of those 10,000, but some prisoners of war were still there.

Q. Why weren’t they all there?

A. A great many of them died from spotted fever or other epidemies. They had

been undernourished when they arrived at the camp. ”

When asked where the mentioned 30,000 detainees came from, Hoss replied
that they were always Poles of Upper Silesia and the General Government,

41 NARA, RG 238, M1270, OCCPAC. Interrogation Records Prepared for War Crimes Proceedings
at Nuernberg 1945-1947, Rudolf Hoss. Testimony of Rudolf Hoess taken at Numberg, Germany,
on 1 April 1946, 1430 to 1730, by Mr. Sender Jaari and Lt. Whitney Harris. Also present: Mr.
George Sackheim, Court Reporter, pp. 1-41; subsequent page numbers from there. This interroga¬
tion is also reproduced in Mendelsohn, pp. 56-96.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

initially only men, since late 1941 also women. In the summer of 1941, the
camp’s barracks had not yet been completed, so some of the deportees were
sent to Birkenau (although at that time this camp did not yet exist). The build¬
ings at Auschwitz were completed at the end of 1942. The Birkenau camp was
never completed; Sector III (Bauabschnitt III) was not yet finished in 1944.

The 30,000 detainees were 20,000 Poles and 10,000 Russians, only men;
the 6,000-7,000 women were not included in that figure, so the total figure
was 36,000-37,000 (pp. 13-15).

Until here, Hoss’s statements are altogether fairly correct, a few inaccura¬
cies notwithstanding, but as soon as the theme of Jewish deportations was
brought up, they became confused, contradictory and clearly wrong (pp. 15-
17):

“Q. Now let’s go back to the year 1942.

A. The development became more rapid and additional prisoners were arriv¬
ing. In addition, there was the delivery of Jews which began in 1941 and it
was recommenced in the Spring of1942.

Q. How many Jews did you receive in 1941?

A. I believe at that time we only received 6,000 Slovakian Jews.

Q. Are you sure about the figure?

A. It may have been 7,000. They were selected for their ability to work.

Q. And where did they work— in the factories or in the agriculture?

A. Many in the agriculture.

Q. Then in the beginning of 1942 Jews started to arrive in greater numbers,
didn ’t they?

A. Yes.

Q. From where did they come?

A. At first, from Poland; that is, the General Government, from Germany, and
I believe from Greece or Holland. I cannot tell the exact sequence, and paral¬
leled with that were shipments from France.

Q. And this was in 1942?

A. Yes, this continued until 1943, but I cannot remember the sequence of ship¬
ments.

Q. How many did you get from General Government of Poland?

A. Approximately 250,000 is the figure I still remember. This includes Upper
Silesia.

Q. How many did you get from Greece?

A. 65,000.

Q. How many from Germany?

A. We received 100,000, but I do not know exactly whether all of these came
from Germany.

Q. The transports went to a great degree through Teresienstadt [sic]?

A. Yes.

Q. And from Holland?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. 90,000.

Q. And from France?

A. From France 110,000.

Q. From Slovakia?

A. 90,000.

Q. From Bulgaria?

A. We did not get any.

Q. From what other countries did you receive Jews?

A. From Belgium 20,000 and in the end from Hungary.

Q. How many?

A. 400,000. '

Q. Now you just told us you had facilities for 130,000. If you add all those fig¬
ures they amount to a much greater number than 130,000. How could you ac¬
commodate all these people?

A. They were not supposed to be employed in work there, but they were sup¬
posed to be exterminated.

Q. You had decided that?

A. That order I received in mid-year of 1941, I believe it was July, from the
Reichs Fuehrer SS in person.

Q. Did you say 1941?

A. Yes, 1941. ”

Hoss, who for 1941 mentioned only Polish and Russian deportees who had not
been killed intentionally, found a way to introduce phantom gassings of Ger¬
man Jews (p. 18):

“Q. You didn’t mention before that German Jews arrived in Auschwitz in
1941. Do you know for sure that German Jews were executed in 1941 ?

A. They could only have come from the Upper Silesian district.

Q. When you mentioned Poles before having arrived in Auschwitz in 1941, did
you include Polish Jews?

A. Yes, they were included.

Q. By what means were they executed in 1941?

A. By gas. ”

The issue of the extermination order is of the utmost importance, also because
it was treated in a rather detailed way. Jaari sought clarifications about his da¬
ting (pp. 19f.):

“Q. About July 1941? Where did you see him?

A. I was ordered to him in Berlin.

Q. Are you sure it was after the Russian campaign had started?

A. No, it was before the Russian campaign had started.

Q. Than it couldn’t have been in July.

A. / cannot remember the exact month, but / know for sure it was before the
date that the Russian campaign was launched. ”

Q. Where did you meet him?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. In his office on Prince Albert Street 8.

Q. Who else was present?

A. I was alone.

Q. What reasons did he give for this order?

A. I don’t recall his exact words, but the meaning was that the Fuehrer had
given the order for the final solution of the Jewish problem.

Q. What does final solution mean?

A. That means the extermination; that’s the way he stated it.

Q. You state it as meaning the extermination?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you know the expression previous to that time?

A. No, it appeared there for the first time.

Q. Did he express himself that way? Did he explain to you what final solu¬
tion ' meant?

A. Yes, he explained it to me.

Q. Was it a conception or a word which was known in the SS circles?

A. No, as I already said, this word appeared for the first time on that occasion.
Later on, of course, I heard it repeatedly in 1942 and 1943 and then more was
meant by that.

Q. Did he give you any detailed directives as to how the extermination was to
take place?

A. Yes, he explained the following to me: the extermination camps in Poland
that existed at that time were not capable of performing the work assigned to
them.

Q. What were these extermination camps? Where were they, and what were
their names?

A. There were three camps: first, Treblinka, Belzak [sic] near Lemberg and the
third one was about 40 kilometers in the direction of Kuhn. It was past Kuhn
in an easterly direction.

Q. Under whose supervision were these three camps?

A. The commander of the Security Police.

Q. Do you mean SS?

A. In other words, the RSHA.

Q. What Amt of the RSHA supervised these camps?

A. I assume that it was the executive. I, myself, don’t know it.

Q. Why didn’t you know that?

A. I didn’t have anything to do with the inspectorate of a concentration camp.
I had nothing to do with these matters in this connection. ”

Himmler, through Gruppenfuhrer Muller, the “Chief Executive of Amt [Of¬
fice] IV” of the RSHA (the Gestapo), and his expert Hauptsturmfiihrer [sic]
“Eickmann” (Eichmann) decided who was to be deported to the camp and
who was to be exterminated (p. 22).

The questioner then returned to Hi mm ler’s presumed meeting with Hoss
(pp. 25-27):

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“Q. Let’s return to Auschwitz — no, to Berlin where you just had discussed
with Himmler the extermination of Jews in Auschwitz.

A. Yes.

Q. You told us that he gave you detailed oral orders, didn ’tyou?

A. Yes.

Q. Who else did you discuss the details of extermination of Jews in Auschwitz
with?

A. I was not allowed to discuss this with anybody; it was top secret matter.

Q. Did Himmler give you orders about the construction of gas chambers?

A. No, he told me the following: that I was supposed to look at an extermina¬
tion camp in Poland and eliminate in the construction of my camp the mistakes
and inefficiency existing in the Polish camp. I was supposed to show him plans
of how / intended to construct my camp in a period of about four weeks. He
told me that he could not give me the exact figures at that time, nor the num¬
bers in which they would arrive, but added that the figure would run into sev¬
eral millions.

Q. And what did you do?

A. He explained to me that the most important matter was that when an action
was being carried out in one of these countries it was not to be stopped or de¬
layed because of inadequate facilities in Auschwitz. He told me that the camps
in Poland were not suitable for enlargement and the reason why he had cho¬
sen Auschwitz was because of the fact that it had good railroad connections
and could be enlarged and was removed enough from centers of people and
could be cut off from connections with the people.

Q. And did he tell you anything else? Did you go there immediately after your
talk with him on your tour of inspection?

A. No, at first / returned to Auschwitz. He explained to me that it was not his
habit to discuss such matters with inferiors; however, this case was so im¬
portant and of such great significance that he had decided to explain to me his
reasons and they were as follows: he said to me that if the extermination of
Jewry did not take place at this time, the German people would be eliminated
by the Jews.

Q. Did he explain to you how the Jews would be able to eliminate the German
people?

A. No.

(Q. What other reasons did he gave?

A. That was the reason. He had planned originally to dispatch a higher rank¬
ing officer to Auschwitz to continue this extermination action, but reconsidered
because he felt that it would only be a cause of friction between myself as the
Camp Commandant and the higher ranking officer in charge of the extermina¬
tion. Therefore, he gave me the order. In addition to that the fact that / was
supposed to treat this as top secret matter and not discuss it with anybody was
explained. All the instructions such as procedure and orders / was to receive
from the RSHA through Eichmann.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. And then before you went on your tour of inspection you returned to Ausch¬
witz?

A. Yes.

Q. What did you do in Auschwitz?

A. I immediately got in touch with the chief of a construction unit and told him
that I needed a large crematorium. I told him that we were going to receive a
large number of sick people, but I did not give him my real reason.

Q. And then?

A. And after we had completed our plans, I sent them to the Reichsfuehrer. Af¬
ter I had changed them in accordance with the real purpose of his instructions,
they were approved. ”

Another important issue that Jaari dealt with is that of Hoss’s alleged visit to
Treblinka (pp. 27-32):

“Q. Didn 'tyou visit any of the three existing extermination camps?

A. Yes.

Q. Which ones?

A. Treblinka...

Q. What did you see there?

A. At that time the action in connection with the Warsaw Ghetto was in pro¬
gress, and I watched the procedure.

Q. How was it done there?

A. They had chambers for about 200 people. Into these chambers the fumes
from an exhaust machine came in. These motors had been taken from captured
enemy equipment such as tanks, trucks and had been installed next to the gas
chambers. They were run by gas, and those victims were supposed to be suffo¬
cated by the fumes.

Q. How many chambers were there, and how many people were killed?

A. I do not know the exact figure, but there may have been about ten cham¬
bers. It was built next to a ramp and the train drove right up to it. The people
were unloaded right into the chambers, and this procedure was necessary be¬
cause the motors did not always work right.

Q. Weren 7 the people first registered or interrogated?

A. No.

Q. They were put directly into the chambers from the trains?

A. Yes.

Q. And what happened to their clothing?

A. They had to undress before they were put into the chambers.

Q. And their valuables?

A. That was all sorted. I saw a number of shacks there in which there were
piles of clothing, shoes, valuables, etc., all sorted separately and neatly
stacked. They were later packed.

Q. What happened to these things?

A. I do not know.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. Who did the sorting?

A. Inmates.

Q. Who guarded the train in which the Jews were to be gassed alive?

A. The train that I saw in Treblinka arrived guarded by members of the Securi¬
ty Police; also the trains that came into Auschwitz from Poland were guarded
by the Security Police.

Q. Did the train loads consist of women, men and children all together?

A. All together.

Q. We are now talking about the train in Treblinka?

A. Yes, the one in Treblinka.

Q. Were there babies, real small children and very old people also?

A. All kinds, if they were evacuated from Warsaw.

Q. You only saw one train in Treblinka during your visit there?

A. Yes, only one.

Q. How many people were in that train?

A. One train generally handled 2,000 people.

Q, When you said generally, do you mean that the trains arriving in Auschwitz
also usually had 2,000 people?

A. Yes, 2,000 on an average. Some trains held 2,400; others, 1,500 and 1,800
but the average was 2,000.

Q. Was this the first time that you observed exterminations?

A. Yes.

Q. Now I understand from your statement that the people — men, women and
children had to strip themselves completely naked, am I right?

A. Yes.

Q. And the women carried their babies with them into the chambers?

A. Yes.

Q. And they knew what was going to happen to them?

A. Yes, I assume so.

Q. Did they know what was going to happen to them?

A. Yes, they did.

Q. And what was your reaction?

A. I did not consider this problem, or the means, or the manner in which it was
conducted because in my opinion they knew it was going to happen to them.

Q. But you found it lawful and right that they were to be exterminated. It was
only the manner you objected to?

A. Yes, according to my discussions with Himmler it was the way you just stat¬
ed.

Q. Did anyone try to escape?

A. No, I didn ’t see that.

Q. How long did you remain in Treblinka?

A. About three or four hours.

Q. Did you discuss the matter with the Camp Commandant in Treblinka?

A. Yes.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. Who was he?

A. I don’t remember his name.

Q. Just one moment. How did you get into the camp? What kind of a pass or
permit did you have?

A. I was introduced by Eichmann. They had been advised of my arrival by
Eichmann.

O. Was Eichmann with you?

A. No.

Q. Did you see Eichmann in Berlin before you left?

A. Eichmann had been in Auschwitz in the meantime and at that time I told
him that I had to see this camp and that he should advise them of my coming.
Otherwise, I would not be able to get into the camp. ”

This long and detailed quote is of paramount importance, because Hoss, as we
will see in Part Two, never visited Treblinka. His entire story is antichronistic
and absurd, a simple fabricated plot.

The interrogator’s interest then turned back to Auschwitz (pp. 32-41):

“Q. How did you send the plans to Himmler?

A. By courier.

Q. Directly to Himmler?

A. Yes, personally.

Q. You didn’t approve of the methods used in Treblinka, so you made up your
mind to improve these methods. What methods were you going to use?

A. I wanted to avoid, in any case, that the persons who came into Auschwitz
should know ahead of time that they were going to be gassed.

Q. How did you plan to avoid that?

A. At the beginning I had to improvise because I didn’t have the necessary
buildings. Signs were installed reading ‘To Debusing’ 'To Disinfecting’ 'To
Bath ’ ‘To the Showers ’, etc. In addition to that, inmates helped the new arri¬
vals with undressing and gave them instructions as to where they were to place
their clothing so that they would find it upon their return. It was done in order
to avoid exciting them in any way or to give them an inkling of actually what
was going to happen.

Q. And after the undressing, where did the victims go?

A. They went into these rooms.

A. What rooms?

A. These chambers. At first there were two old farms before the crematoriums
were built. They were made airproof. The windows were shut by cement and
air proof doors were constructed and in eveiy chamber there was a small hole
through which the gas was blown in.

Q. [Lt Harris] What kind of gas was used?

A. Cyclone B. It was a crystal-like substance.

Q. From where did you receive these crystals?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. Originally, this Cyclone B was used in order to gas rooms and to extermi¬
nate insects. Since it was very poisonous and had to be treated with great care,
we assumed that it was the proper thing to use against humans.

Q. Was it long before the human beings were killed by this gas?

A. It depended on weather, humidity, time of day, and the number of people
present in the chamber. Also, the gas was not composed the same way and was
not as effective every time.

Q. [Mr. Jaari] In general, how long a time did it take?

A. I saw it happen often enough. Generally it took from three to fifteen
minutes. The effect varied. Wherever the gas was thrown into the chamber, the
people standing right next to it were immediately anaesthetized. It gradually
spread out to the far corners of the room and generally after five minutes one
could no longer discern the human forms in the chamber. Everybody was dead
after fifteen minutes, and the chambers were opened after a half an hour and
not once was anybody alive at that time.

Q. How were you able to hear voices from the chambers if they were so air¬
proof, as you said before?

A. They were air-tight, but the walls were not too thick. They were only ordi¬
nary walls.

Q. So what noises did you hear while you were standing outside?

A. At first they all screamed, of course.

Q. Did you have any observation windows?

A. In the chambers made up out of the farm houses we did not have any but
later on in the concrete crematorium we did.

Q. Who delivered the gas to you?

A. A gas company in Hamburg.

Q. To whom were the shipments of this gas addressed?

A. To the Administration of the Concentration Camp, Auschwitz.

Q. Who paid them?

A. I do not know, but I assume the Administration paid for it. I am sure they
were paid.

Q. When was the construction of the permanent gas chambers finished?

A. All four were finished in 1943. We were already functioning in 1942.

Q. When in 1942 was the first one put into use? It was there already, perhaps,
in November of 1941?

A. No, 1942.

Q. So these gas chambers, the provincial [recte: provisional] gas chambers,
were used from the summer of 1941 up until 1942.

A. November of 1942. They were also used later on whenever the crematori¬
ums were insufficient to handle the work.

Q. But on the average how many trains arrived daily?

A. Two.

Q. 4,000 people?

A. Yes.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. And two doctors examined them?

A. Yes, they filed by them.

Q. So the examination really never took place; they just had a look?

A. Yes.

Q. And according to which plan was the decision taken?

A. According to the order as to whether or not a man or a woman was strong
and healthy.

Q. And what about the children? Were all the children killed?

A. That depended upon their stature. Some of the 15 and 16-year old children
also went to work, if they were strong.

Q. In other words, children below 15 were exterminated.

A. Yes.

O. Just because of Himmler’s order?

A. Yes.

Q. And because they were dangerous to the German people?

A. Yes.

Q. So a child of three or four years old was dangerous to the German people.

A. No, it isn 't quite that way. I should have elaborated perhaps a little more on
my statement before of Himmler’s explanation. He said the German people
would not have carried rights unless the Jewish people were now exterminat¬
ed.

Q. So that is really a confirmation of what you said. The German people could
not rise at all because of the four-year old Jewish children.

A. Yes.

Q. In general, what was the percentage of the number of people killed and the
number ofpeople used for labor?

A. It varied between 20 and 30% that were set aside for work.

Q. And was this the percentage with men and women inclusively?

A. There were always more men fit for labor than women.

Q. Just to take an example, when you received the 65,000 Jews from Greece,
how many of them were found fit for labor?

A. The Greeks were very ill and arrived in a very bad condition so that I be¬
lieve the percentage in this case was approximately 15%.

Q. Right now, let’s go back to the procedure at Auschwitz; they arrived, they
had been what you call inspected by the SS doctors, one row was marched into
the camp and they were the ones who were fit for labor, is that right?

A. Yes.

O. And the other row was marched into the farm houses?

A. Yes.

Q. Were they undressed?

A. Next to where they undressed in separate shacks next the farm houses. Later
on, in inclement weather other military barracks were constructedfor them.

Q. And then?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. And then they were separated according to sizes and marched in groups in¬
to the chambers.

Q. Groups of200?

A. Yes.

Q. And the people who remained outside, could they hear what was going on
in the two farm houses?

A. No.

Q. How many people could be accommodated in each farm house for extermi¬
nation?

A. The farm houses accommodated in their various chambers one complete
train shipment all at once.

Q. You told us that after one half hour the doors were opened?

A. Yes.

Q. Who removed the bodies?

A. A commando that worked there. It was primarily a commando of inmates.

Q. And where were the bodies taken?

A. Behind the farmhouses there were open pits in which the bodies were
burned.

(Q. Who took care of the burning?

A. The same commando took care of all these duties.

Q. And when three trains arrived a day and the first trainload was taken care
of was the second train set on the side track until every trace of the first
trainload had been removed?

A. Yes, two trainloads could be taken care of at the same time in the two farm
houses. In case a third train arrived too early, it had to wait on the side track.
Q. Who removed bodies from the trains when they arrived? I understand that
there were bodies in the trains when they arrived.

A. That was another commando of inmates who took care of that work. They
would be put on a truck and thrown into these pits where they were burned.

Q. How many were generally dead? How many of the passengers were already
dead upon arrival?

A. That depended on where the train originally came from and how long they
had been on their way. In the case of the Greek Jews who had been ten days in
transit over 100 had died on the way.

Q. And what about the Hungarians?

A. There were more.

Q. How many more?

A. They varied. Sometimes the trains were composed of different parts. Some¬
times a hospital had been put on to a train. In that case, of course, there were
many more dead than when the trainload was from an agricultural region.

Q. Do you know whether or not bodies were removed from the trains while in
transit?

A. I never heard of that.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. And these bodies, before they were thrown on the fires, was their clothing
taken off?

A. Yes.

Q. By your inmates?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened to the goldfrom the mouths of the victims?

A. That was melted.

Q. That I can understand, but was it removed from the victims before execu¬
tion or after execution?

A. They were removed from the bodies before they were taken to the pits to be
burned.

Q. Who did that? Who removed the gold?

A. There were among these commandos of inmates a few dentists.

Q. Who supervised their work?

A. The dental work was supervised by an SS Dentist whose duty was to see that
the work was done in a satisfactory manner.

Q. And when did the victims take off their rings, bracelets, ear rings, etc. ?

A. They took that off at the time when they got undressed with the exception of
rings, which they kept on when they went into the gas chambers. Those were
removed after the bodies were removed from the gas chambers.

Q. Just a moment — returning to the dental work, were their gold teeth pulled
out?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you have any complaints from the surrounding villages about the smell
from these pits?

A. When there was an Eastern wind the smell could be noticed across the Vis¬
tula.

Q. And you received complaints from the Poles?

A. No, they didn’t complain; it was only discussed among the population but
they did not complain.

Q. Well, this will be all for today. ”

3. The Interrogation of April 2, 1946

On April 2, 1946, the interrogation resumed at 10 AM. 42 After reminding
Hoss that he was still under oath, Jaari asked him the first question (pp. If.):

“Q. Yesterday afternoon we finished with your description of the procedure of
gassing before the permanent crematoriums were constructed, didn't we?

A. Yes.

42 Ibid., 2 April 1946, 1000 to 1230, by Mr. S. Jaari, Interrogator. Also present: Mr. Leo Katz, Inter¬
preter, and Charles J. Gallagher, Court Reporter, pp. 1-31; subsequent page numbers from there.
This interrogation is also reproduced in Mendelsohn, pp. 97-127.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. And if I remember correctly you said that the gassing took place in Ausch¬
witz in the two farm houses until end of1942?

A. Yes, but in the meantime one permanent crematorium was finished.

Q. When?

A. This was already finished a little before that time, about October 1942, so
that they conducted this partly in the crematorium, and partly in the farm
houses, but there was no definite separation. ”

Hoss then explained that he had returned to Auschwitz in 1944 “for two
months,” and later that this was “during the three months, June, July, and Au¬
gust 1944.” The Auschwitz complex had been subdivided into three camps,
commanded by SS Sturmbannfuhrer Baer, SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Kramer and
SS Hauptsturmfiihrer Schwarz. Between December 1943 and June 1944, the
commanders were SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Liebehenschel, SS Sturmbann¬
fuhrer Hartjenstein and Schwarz.

Jaari was interested in the number of those allegedly gassed, hence picked
up that topic again (pp. 2-4):

“Q. Now during the period until the first permanent plants were finished, how
many human beings were gassed?

A. I cannot give you the number. I don’t know. Cannot even give you an esti¬
mate.

Q. How many were gassed daily?

A. As / already mentioned, if an operation was being undertaken, normally
daily two trains were taken, that is to say 1600 to 1700 human beings were se¬
lected according to the various considerations and percentages that / men¬
tioned to you yesterday.

Q. If / understand you correctly, you told me that one trainload consisted of
2000 people?

A. Yes.

Q. And two trains make four-thousand people, is that right?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. And even if we use a percentage of twenty-five percent able bodied men,
that means one-thousand.

A. You should have understood me to mean one train of 1600 or 1700 people,
and than two trains would mean twice that number, and that would be 3400
altogether, or, 3500.

Q. So you mean that out of two daily trainloads about 3500 persons were
gassed?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Were you sure of that percentage, too?

A. Yes, and in the manner in which the train came in.

Q. So you started such actions about July, 1941, didn't you?

A. Yes.

Q. From July 1941 to October 1942, that is fifteen months?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. Yes.

Q. And the average, taking it very conservatively, was three-thousand people a
day?

A. Yes, but these operations were not carried out daily, but they were carried
out only until one of these operations was finished. For instance, four or five
weeks, and then again for a period of time nothing was undertaken.

Q. So in 1941 you carried out actions against Slovakians, and the Polish
Jews?

A. Yes.

Q. How many?

A. I can only give you the final total. / do not know what of time they were be¬
ing gassed. ”

At this point, the question induced Hoss to change the historically correct
statements he had made earlier about Soviet prisoners of war (pp. 4-8):

“Q. I had the figures yesterday, and we will return to them later. Iam sure you
forgot yesterday to mention the Russian prisoners who were exterminated in
Auschwitz?

A. Yes, / forgot. / did not mention it.

Q. Yesterday you told me only Jews were killed there.

A. The way you put the question to me, / took it to mean that you were only
asking about Jews, and about the decision and sentence that had been passed
by the SS Standgerichte, which were not added to these numbers.

Q. You told me yesterday that the executions caused by the SS Standgerichte
sentence were carried out through hanging and shooting, and not by gassing;
however, we know for certain that the Russian prisoners also were gassed, is
that right?

A. Yes, but this has nothing to do with the sentence passed by SS Standgerich¬
te.

Q. But do you consider Russians as human beings, and Jews as cattle when
you were talking about cattle execution yesterday, and not human executions?
A. I assumed yesterday that you only wanted information about the execution
of Jews, and not about the Russians.

Q. / want to know everything you can tell about every execution in Auschwitz,
and / do not want you to hide anything from me.

A. Yes, / understand.

Q. Now we will have to go back to 1941, and find out how many Russian pris¬
oners of war were gassed in Auschwitz in 1941.

A. I cannot give you this number.

Q. Approximately how many?

A. (No answer)

Q. Was it fifty-thousand?

A. No, not that many. Perhaps ten-thousand.

Q. And was the procedure the same as when the Jews were gassed?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. Yes.

Q. Who gave the order for the execution of the Russian prisoners of war?

A. These shipments came over the competent Stapo Agencies in Kattowitz,
Troppau and Breslau.

Q. You knew that the prisoners of war were under the jurisdiction of SS, Ge¬
stapo?

A. I do not know that. They were transferred and turned over to the Stapo
agency as prisoners of war. I do not know for what reason.

Q. Who selected them from their regular PW camps?

A. I do not know.

Q. The prisoners of war who came there, were they Russian, or were they from
Turkestan, or were they all kinds of nationalities from USSR?

A. From what I saw of the people that arrived there, they were from all regions
and areas of Russia.

Q. Who guarded them when they came?

A. Wehrmacht transport details brought them from the prisoner of war camps.
Q. Let’s get this straight. Were they brought directly by members of the Gesta¬
po from the PW camps, and under guard of Wehrmacht commandos to Ausch¬
witz?

A. An officer of the Wehrmacht was commandant of the train, and the officer
of the Gestapo had a letter of authorization from the Gestapo agency that
these people in that train were to be given ‘special treatment. ’

Q. Who signed that order?

A. A competent Stapo chieffrom Kattowitz, from Troppau, or from Breslau.

Q. Did they come in a train, or did they march to Auschwitz?

A. In a train.

Q. How many prisoners were in each train?

A. Just the same as in the case of Jews, about two thousand.

Q. How large was the guard detail?

A. About a company’s strength.

Q. Under the command of an officer?

A. Yes, a Wehrmacht officer.

Q. AndN.C.O.s?

A. Yes, also.

Q. The train arrived where in Auschwitz?

A. In the camp itself. We had a spur in the camp where the train arrived.

Q. Then what happened, were these prisoners marched out of the train directly
into the gas chambers?

A. No, first the train was unloaded, and then after the train was unloaded the
guard detail left the camp. ”

This was followed by questions asked about the Wehrmacht officers accom¬
panying the transport of PoWs. Then the matter turned back to the number of
Russian PoWs killed (pp. 8-31 for the rest of this section):

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“Q. How many years did the gassing of the Russian PW’s continue?

A. I believe that this terminated with the beginning of 1942. As a matter of
fact, I believe that we received no more prisoners of war after that period.

Q. You estimated about 10,000 PW’s were killed in 1941?

A. Yes.

Q. How many were killed in 1942?

A. I cannot give you any numbers. When I was interrogated at Minden, the in¬
terrogator told me that the total number certainly must have been somewhere
in the neighborhood of 100,000, but I said that I did not think they were that
many, that is impossible; that there was certainly not that many, but I always
stress the fact I cannot give any definite figures.

Q. How about an estimate?

A. I do not believe that even the figure of 70,000 is possible. I don’t believe
there were so many because the trains did not arrive eveiy week, sometimes
there were no trains for weeks. I have tried to recall by counting the months
the total number of PW’s who arrived there.

Q. What would your most conservative estimate be?

A. The most which is possible, estimating a period of about one year, is about
eighteen to tw’entv-thousand.

Q. Including the ten-thousand in 1941, or exclusive of them?

A. This includes the ten-thousand in one year. But it does not include those
ten-thousand that were turned over to us for labor purposes.

Q. So eighteen to twenty-thousand Russian PW’s were gassed in Auschwitz?

A. Yes.

Q. How many were hanged?

A. Only those individual cases that were sentenced by the SS Standgerichte;
they were only a few individual cases. They were either hanged or shot. ”

After a long discussion on the treatment of PoWs, Jaari returned to the topic of
the alleged extermination facilities:

“Q. We will leave this topic for a moment, and go back to October, 1942,
when the first permanent plants had been installed?

A. Yes.

Q. Where were the plants located?

A. In Birkenau.

A. And there was a spur leading to the plants?

A. Yes.

Q. Now, when the train arrived the prisoners were unloaded just as they were
unloaded during the previous executions?

A. Yes.

Q. Then, where did they march?

A. Then those who were fit for labor were selected, and the others marched to
this newly erected crematorium.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. Did the selecting of the able bodied Jews take place in the building, or out¬
side?

A. Outside as before mentioned when the train arrived.

Q. That is, the Jews marched past the two SS doctors?

A. Yes.

Q. So, when a train with two thousand persons arrived, two thousand marched
past the two doctors, and they just nodded, this one to labor and this one to the
plant.

A. Yes.

Q. What kind of an examination was that. Was that a sufficient examination?

A. Yes, the doctors said that was sufficient.

Q. Were they real high-classed doctors?

A. Not all of them. There were a lot of doctors around.

Q. They must have been exceedingly clever, just to look at persons dressed up
and still being able to say, ‘He is good and this other is a bad one. ’

A. Yes, that is the way in which it was done.

Q. Have you ever been examined by a doctor for military duty?

A. Yes.

(Q. Did he just take a glance at you, and then say you were OK?

A. No.

Q. What did he do to examine you?

A. / had to undress, and was closely examined, my heart, lungs and other or¬
gans.

Q. Did not it ever enter your mind that the people that you were to employ in
your war industries, and in your factories should be perfect specimens of
manhood, physically strong and able bodied persons?

A. Only those who appeared at first glance to be strong and healthy were se¬
lected. ” (pp. 11-13)

With regard to these forced laborers in the armaments industry, Hoss men¬
tioned a conflict within the SS: Pohl complained that the number of detainees
selected at Auschwitz as fit for labor was too low, while Muller and Eichmann
protested because not enough Jews were killed. In the end, Pohl’s point of
view prevailed to preserve as many workers as possible for the industries.

“Q. But still Auschwitz succeeded in exterminating quite a number, something
like the millions, didn’t they?

A. Yes.

Q. How many millions?

A. / again refer back to the statement made to me by Eichmann in March or
April, 1944, when he had to go and report to [the] Reichsfuehrer that his office
had turned over two and one-half million to the camp.

(Q. To the Auschwitz area?

A. Yes.

Q. Only in the Auschwitz area?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. Yes.

Q. Two and one-half million, you say?

A. Yes.

Q. Are you a little confused just now?

A. The reason why I remember the number, two and one-half million, is be¬
cause it was repeatedly told to me that Auschwitz was to have exterminated
four or five million, but that was not so. We had an order by the Reichsfuehrer
of SS to destroy all materials in numbers immediately, and not preserve any
records of the executions that were being carried out.

Q. The two and one-half million were people delivered to Auschwitz, were they
the ones that were executed?

A. Executed and exterminated.

Q. Then quite a number more were delivered to the camp of Auschwitz?

A. Yes. According to the percentage that / have already mentioned, you would
have to add twenty to thirty percent, who were used for labor purposes.

Q. Were these two and one-half million gassed?

A. Yes

Q. And how about the half of million, which were put to death by other means?
A. They were those who died from diseases, and who perished by other sick¬
nesses in the camp.

Q. Didn 't you know what was going on in Auschwitz up until the last moment
even when you had left your position as commandant?

A. Yes.

Q. You were with the administration and economic office, weren 'tyou?

A. That is with the superior authority.

We skip two questions about Hoss’s assignment to the WVHA.

Q. The people who were to be gassed in the permanent plants undressed in the
free outside these large buildings, didn’t they?

A. No, there was a special room.

Q. Just a moment ago you said they were undressed in the free outside?

A. No. The train was unloaded, they deposited their baggage, they were sorted
out according to those fit for labor, and then the ones who had been selected
marched away, and all the others undressed in an undressing room.

Q. What was told would happen to them there?

A. They were told that they were going to be conditioned to take a bath, and to
be deloused, and the signs were there corresponding to these institutions.

Q. They undressed and put their things away just the same way you told us
yesterday, as it would happen in the farmhouses?

A. Yes.

Q. How many people could be gassed at the same time in one of the chambers
in a permanent plant?

A. In one chamber, two thousand.

A. A whole trainload?

A. Yes.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. And how did the gassing take place?

A. It was all below ground. In the ceiling of these gas chambers, there were
three or four openings that were fenced around with grating that reached to
the floor of the gas chamber, and through these openings the gas was poured
into the gas chambers.

Q. And then what happened?

A. The same thing happened as I already told you happened in the farmhouses.
It depended on the weather conditions. If it were dry and a lot of people were
in the chambers, it went comparatively fast.

Q. How long a time did the gassing take?

A. As I already stated, from three or five minutes to fifteen minutes.

Q. And how would you know when they all were dead?

A. There was an aperture, or vision slit through which one could look.

Q. And did you hear any noises from the outside?

A. Yes, but only muffled, because the walls were very thick cement, so that it
was almost impossible to hear anything.

Q. And after how long a time were the doors opened?

A. After half an hour, as in the case of the other places.

Q. And who went in to remove the bodies?

A. The detail of prisoners who were working there. I might add that in the in¬
stallations of the plants electrical ventilators were added which removed the
gas fumes.

Q. But was not it quite dangerous work for these inmates to go into these
chambers and work among the bodies and among the gas fumes?

A. No.

Q. Did they carry gas masks?

A. They had some, but they did not need them, as nothing ever happened.

Q. Then the bodies were removed to where?

A. Into the crematorium that was situated above.

(). Did they have elevators?

A. Yes.

Q. Where were the rings removed? Was it in the gas chamber itself?

A. No, there was an anti-chamber [sic] outside the gas chamber just before the
elevator where the rings were removed.

Q. And where they pulled out the gold teeth?

A. Yes.

Q. How were the crematoriums arranged?

A. There were four crematoriums. The first two larger had five double furnac¬
es, and they could burn two thousand human beings in twelve hours.

Q. What kind offuel did you use?

A. Coke.

Q. And the bodies were just shoved in, were they?

A. There were little barrels as used in the crematoriums in towns and the bod¬
ies were pushed up to the opening and slid in.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. How many bodies could one oven take or hold?

A. This double furnace could take in three corpses at one time.

Q. How many minutes would it take before the body was reduced to ashes?

A. It was difficult to say. When the full burning power of this furnace was still
available, the process took place comparatively fast, but later on after a lot of
bodies had been burned, it was more slowly, but then it also depended on the
body composition of the corpse.

Q. What kind of bodies burned faster?

A. The heavy-set fat persons.

Q. Did you get any fat persons, or strong persons into the ovens?

A. / do not mean strong bodies, but heavy fat persons.

Q. Were you often present at these executions and burnings?

A. Yes.

Q. Why?

A. Because / had to do this. / had to supervise these proceedings.

Q. Why did you have to supervise these proceedings?

A. To see that everything was carried out in an orderly manner.

Q. Was it interesting?

A. No, certainly not.

Q. Why not? They were enemies of German people who were executed,
weren 't they?

A. But the procedure was not such that one might take an interest in.

Q. You told me yesterday that Himmler had explained to you that every Jew ir¬
respective of sex, or age, was a danger to the German people?

A. Yes.

Q. So it must have been quite a satisfaction for you, wasn ’t it, to see that dan¬
ger to German people was removed so efficiently?

A. No, certainly not.

Q. You reported very often in Berlin, didn 'tyou?

A. No, never.

Q. You never left Auschwitz after the executions of a large scale started?

A. Not to report about these proceedings.

Q. What did you report in Berlin?

A. I was called for a commander’s meeting, but was called by my superior au¬
thority, and my superior officer did the questioning what they wanted to know
from me, but / do not know today any more what they were.

Q. You remember in November 1942 you were in Berlin at Eichmann’s office
to a meeting of experts belonging to the section organized for the solution of
the Jewish question?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you give a lecture there?

A. No, not I.

Q. Didn ’tyou explain how efficient the set-up in Auschwitz worked?

A. No.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. Who gave the lectures there?

A. Eichmann and various leaders from the countries of Belgium, and Hungary
and so on, whatever they were.

Q. Were there maps for them to study?

A. (No answer)

Q. / do not mean in Auschwitz, but in Berlin at the meeting?

A. No.

Q. No statistical material?

A. No, the various experts of the different countries only disclosed how many
Jews had already been delivered into the camps, and how many could still be
expected to be delivered.

Q. You just sat as a listener, and did not explain to the gathering there what
had happened?

A. They knew’ what was there.

Q. How did they know? You told me you had been told by Himmler this was a
top secret, which no one was supposed to know anything about except you.

A. Yes, that was in the year of 1941 when I received this instruction by
Reichsfuehrer of SS to keep it a secret, but in the meantime the various offices
had received all these people, and their instructions, so that these experts
should have known by now what had been going on.

Q. Can you remember any one of the gentlemen present?

A. There was Eichmann, Sturmbannfuehrer Guenther, / do not know his first
name. / only know one, that was Eichmann ’s deputy.

Q. Who else?

A. / do not know the others by name. The only one that I still recall was the
man from Slovakia, Wisliceny, and / believe perhaps a Dr. Seidl.

Q. What country did he represent?

A. I do not know.

Q. Was Abromeit There?

A. I do not know.

Q. Was Dannecker there?

A. Yes, Dannecker was there.

Q. Was Brunner there?

A. Yes, Brunner was there.

Q. Was Krumey there?

A. I know Krumey, but / don 7 know if he was there.

We skip a few questions and answers about the presence of other SS officers
and the structure of Office IV of the RSHA.

Q. Turning to the meeting in November 1942, what did Eichmann lecture up¬
on?

A. It was the other way around. The various representatives of the different
countries had to report on the conditions in their countries to Eichmann.

Q. But in the presence of all the participants in the meeting?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. Yes. It was more in the manner of a round table discussion. Every partici¬
pant asked Eichmann what he was to do about difficulties that had come up.
For instance, in France, it was asked what was to be done about difficulties
that had come up with the railroad and the Wehrmacht, and so on, and then
these questions were answered.

Q. What difficulties were there in connection with the Wehrmacht?

A. Mostly it was a question of transport and the Wehrmacht control of rail
transportation, that they did not always make the rolling stock available.

Q. What was Eichmann’s answer to this difficulty?

A. Eichmann told them they should turn in their difficulties. That he knows
them, and that he knew they might request assistance there, and, besides that,
the people at the meeting had to disclose how many Jews they had already
evacuated, and how many according to their estimate were still to be expected,
and that was also the reason why I had to be present.

Q. Was the word ‘Endloesung ’, final solution, used at this meeting?

A. Yes, that was Eichmann’s expression.

Q. What did that mean?

A. That meant extermination, as I have already explained it to you.

Q. Can you state, absolutely definitely, what did the word ‘Endloesung ’, final
solution, stand for?

A. I can only tell you what I understand by it, as I understood it from the
Reichsfuehrer.

Q. And what did it mean?

A. It meant, extermination.

Q. Of whom?

A. Of the Jews.

Q. So that the word or words final solution ’ were used in this circle, which
meant biological extermination of the Jews?

A. Yes.

Q. And after this meeting, did you go back to Auschwitz?

A. Yes.

Q. What was the next meeting you attended?

A. Never attended another meeting with Eichmann.

Q. In 1943, were you in Berlin at a meeting where Eichmann explained to dif¬
ferent ministries, or representatives from the different ministries, what ‘End¬
loesung ’ meant?

A. No.

Q. Where he explained that ‘Endloesung’ allegedly only meant sterilization
and evacuation of the Jews?

A. No, I do not know.

Q. Did you hear of such a meeting?

A. No, this is the first time I heard about it.

Q. Are you sure of that?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. Yes. I only participated in one meeting with Eichmann; never at any other
time.

Q. You were never at any meeting in which representatives of the ministry
were present?

A. No, never.

Q. Why did you go to Budapest in May 1944?

A. Because I had received a commission by my superior, Gruppenfuehrer
Gluecks, who had charged me to go there to find out how many Jews could
still be expected for the armaments industries that were to be started, so they
could know how many they should count on for manpower. ”

Hoss next stated that Glucks had ordered him to get in touch with the head of
Gestapo Muller to get the above information. Muller, however, was unable to
give him that information and told him instead to ask Eichmann directly, who
was then in Budapest. Hoss went there and met him:

“Q. In the Hotel Astoria in Budapest?

A. No. I was never in any hotel in Budapest, but I was in his office on
Schwanenberg in Budapest.

Q. Where did you stay in Budapest?

A. I stayed with Eichmann in his house. ”

Jaari then asked Hoss about the results of this meeting:

“Q. So when you saw Eichmann, what did he tell you?

A. He also could not give an exact figure, but that it was estimated about two
million Jews were present in Hungary.

Q. And all two million were to be sent to Auschwitz?

A. He said right away this estimate in his opinion was too high. He did not
know how many there were, but that he believed that number was too much.

Q. Did he feel sorry he could not get two millions?

A. No, he merely said that was not correct.

Q. How many did he expect to get from Hungary?

A. Half a million.

Q. All for labor purposes?

A. No, Eichmann had nothing to do with selecting those who were fit for labor.
His office took no interest in this question at all.

Q. They only had the interest of getting them exterminated, hadn t they?

A. Yes.

Q. So Eichmann could not give you any figures. Who gave you the figures?

A. Nobody could give me any information.

Q. Who was present at that discussion with Eichmann in his office?

A. So far / know they were Eichmann, Hunsche and Brunner.

Q. And Wisliceny?

A. I met him later in Mungatz. ” (p. 14-27)

Hoss had not only no idea about the number of Hungarian Jews to be deport¬
ed, but also about the percentage of those fit for labor among them, which was

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

the reason for his trip to Budapest. Kichmann did not kn ow it, and Hoss hoped
for a 35%. To find out, he went on “a little trip around the concentration
camps to look at the Jews,” first to “Mungatz,” probably Munkacs, 43 which
was part of deportation “Sector 1,” the “Carpatho-Ukraine” area, 44 under the
command of Wisliceny. Here he went “to the brickyards where the Jews had
been collected” and had a physician inspect a thousand Jews to see how many
of them were fit for labor, which amounted to about 30%. After that he in¬
spected other “brickyards” at “Mungatz” and its surrounding areas, and it
turned out that always 30% of the Jews were fit for work. Then he went back
to Kichma nn at Budapest, whence he returned to Berlin.

4. The Interrogations of April 3, 1946

During the interrogation on the morning of April 3, 1946, 45 Jaari asked Hoss
about his past in Dachau and Sachsenhausen. I reproduce here only the parts
relating to Auschwitz (p. 6):

“Q. Do you know Hauptscharfuehrer Palitsch? [sic].

A. Yes.

Q. Who was Palitsch?

A. He was Rapportfuehrer.

Q. And as Rapportfuehrer he had the same position that you had in Dachau,
namely, chief of all the labor company leaders?

A. Not of the labor leaders, but of the block leaders; that is, those block lead¬
ers who were in charge of each prison block.

Q. What was Palitsch's additional job, besides being Rapportfuehrer?

A. He was always Rapportfuehrer.

Q. Didn 7 he take a special interest in executions?

A. His job and title was Rapportfuehrer, but he was also used like the other
non-commissioned leaders in executions, as, for instance, Moll. ”

The exchange then returned to Treblinka (pp. 6fi):

“Q. You made quite a number of trips in 1941 and 1942, you have told me. Is
that correct?

A. Yes.

Q. You went to the meeting in Sachsenhausen, you were called to Himmler in
1941, and you went to Treblinka. What is your estimation of the time you were
away from Auschwitz in 1941?

A. These official business trips only lasted three or four days each time.

43 Braham 1981, Vol.l, p.540.

44 Sector I consisted of the Gendarmerie District VIII, Carpatho-Ruthenia and northeastern Hungary.

45 NARA, RG 238, M1270, OCCPAC. Interrogation Records Prepared for War Crimes Proceedings
at Nuernberg 1945-1947, Rudolf Hoss. Testimony of Rudolf Hoess, taken at Nurnberg, Germany,
on 3 April, 1946, 1100-1230, by Mr. Sender Jaari. Also present: George Sackheim, Interpreter,
and Anne Daniels, Court Reporter, pp. 1-19. Unless stated otherwise, subsequent page numbers
from there.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. To come back to the facts about your trip to Treblinka, if I understood you
correctly, you told me the other day that you visited Treblinka in 1941.

A. Yes.

Q. And in another statement by you, made at another place, you said you visit¬
ed Treblinka in 1942. Which year is correct?

A. 1941 is correct. If I said 1942, it was incorrect.

Q. But in 1942 you made a number of official trips too?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you ever have any vacation?

A. I only had a vacation once; that was in 1943. ”

Jaari repeatedly pressured Hoss to make him say that Minister of the Interior
Wilhelm Frick had visited Auschwitz, but Hoss did not cave in; he instead re¬
iterated his alleged statement of 16 March that the camp had been visited by
Minister of Justice Otto Georg Thierack and by Minister of Finance Schwerin
von Krosigk, who allegedly visited Auschwitz in 1941. The respective part of
this interrogation is particularly instructive (pp. 8-10):

“Q. When Schwerin Krosigk [sic] visited the camp, did you have a conference
with him?

A. No. He came with Gauleiter Bracht. He was primarily interested in agricul¬
ture and industry> and workshops of the camp.

Q. How long did he stay in the camp?

A. Perhaps two hours, and then he drove away, together with the Gauleiter.

Q. Did he arrive by car or by train?

A. By car.

Q. Did he have a look at the railroad station in the camp?

A. Yes, he passed it in the Auschwitz Camp.

Q. Was there a train on the rail when he was there?

A. No.

Q. Did he see the crematorium buildings?

A. No, they had not been constructed at that time.

Q. But he certainly saw the pits where bodies were burned, didn’t he?

A. He couldn V see those; they were quite removed from the camp.

I wasn ’t at all permitted to show those to him.

Q. You accompanied the Gauleiter and the Finance Minister on their tour of
inspection, didn’t you?

A. Yes, Ipersonally did.

Q. Didn't he ask you about anything?

A. He asked me all sorts of questions. It was the first time he ever visited a
concentration camp, he said.

Q. What kind of questions he put to you? Give me some specific examples.

A. What kind of inmates there were in this camp.

Q. And your answer?

A. I explained to him who was there besides the Jews.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

O. Didn’t you tell him there were Jews?

A. No.

Q. Why not?

A. Because / wasn ’t allowed to say that.

Q. Was the Finance Minister so foolish that he didn 7 know there were any
Jews?

A. I mean, the Jews who were to be exterminated.

Q. All right, I understand that Himmler had ordered you not to mention this
matter to anyone.

A. Yes.

Q. But there were Jews in the camp, you have told us, who were laborers, were
there not?

A. Yes, but I didn 7 have anything to do with that.

Q. Now don 7 try to confuse yourself or me, but answer my very simple ques¬
tions. The Finance Minister asked you, you told us, who were the inmates of
the camp. I now ask you, what did you answer him?

A. / said there were Poles, political prisoners, professional criminals, and
Jews, but this was a case of the Jews used for labor.

Q. Yes. We are talking about what kind of inmates there were in the labor
camps and not in the concentration camps, people who were not to be exter¬
minated.

A. Yes.

Q. All right, you now understand me. So your answer was ‘Political prisoners,
professional criminals, Poles and Jews ’ did he not?

A. Yes.

Q. Then he, of course, asked you ‘Why are the Jews here? ’ did he not?

A. Yes.

Q. And what was your answer?

A. I told him that they were delivered to the camp by the Gestapo Headquar¬
ters at Kattowitz for internment, from the entire region of Silesia.

Q. To make it quite certain that I have understood you correctly, you told the
Finance Minister that the Jews had been delivered to the camp by the Gesta¬
po?

A. Yes.

Q. And what did he then ask you?

A. Nothing further.

A. Wasn 7 he astonished that the Gestapo had to do with the delivery of Jews
to concentration camps?

A. No, the Gestapo also delivered other prisoners. ”

Jaari then asked about Thierack’s visit, which is said to have taken place in the
winter of 1942-1943; Hoss remembered that there was a lot of snow and said
that Gruppenfiihrer Glucks “had come to Auschwitz, especially for this occa¬
sion” (p. 11). Danuta Czech recorded the event under the date of January 8,
1943, but did not refer to a specific document (Czech 1989, p. 380). The day

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

before, Glucks arrived at Auschwitz at 5:30 PM, which is confirmed by the
documentation “FvD” ( Fiihrer vom Dienst; ibid.). Thierack’s visit is at best
dubious. As to its reason, Hoss declared (pp. Ilf.):

“The reason for his visit was that the Department of Justice was supposed to
deliver to the concentration camps experts for the rearmament industry, peo¬
ple who had been sentenced to jail earlier, who, when their sentence was over,
were kept in preventive custody. For instance, there were mechanics and ex¬
perts who could be used in the Buna Works of the I. G. Farben Company. ”

Thierack had to make sure that the living conditions of these detainees were
acceptable. But why was it necessary for a Reich minister to be bothered with
investigating this?

The answer to this rhetorical question is provided by Czech herself a few
pages earlier, in her entry for December 31, 1942 (Czech 1989, p. 369):

“The head of Department IV C 2 at the RSHA, Dr. Berndorj[T\, sends a secret
letter to the head of the WVHA Pohl, with which he informs him that, in con¬
nection with an order by the Reichsfiihrer SS of December 14, 1942, Minister
of Justice Thierack has approved the internment of all ‘antisocial elements, ’
primarily Poles, in the concentration camps. They are to be transferred from
the respective prisons to the concentration camps. At the same time, he states
that some of these 12,000 arrested individuals have already been sent to con¬
centration camps. ”

Hence, just eight days later Thierack is said to have descended upon Ausch¬
witz in order to verify that these “antisocial elements” were acco mm odated in
acceptable conditions!

From the following questions by Jaari it can be deduced that the story of
Thierack’s visit originated from the fanciful tale of some former detainees (p.
14):

Q. Was Palitsch present at the visit?

A. I can’t remember that with certainty.

Q. Don’t remember that Palitsch whipped an inmate in the presence of
Thierack?

A. No, I can 't remember that, really not. ”

The rest of the interrogation deals with Dachau and is of no interest for this
study.

After a couple of hours of rest, the interrogation resumed in the after¬
noon. 46 The topics were mainly Dachau, the evacuation of the concentration
camps, Kaltenbrunner, and the relation between Pohl and Muller.

For the present study, only two things are worthy of our interest. Hoss re¬
peated (p. 11):

Ibid., 1430 to 1640, by Mr. Jaari, Interrogator. Also present: Mr. Leo Katz, Interpreter, and
Charles J. Gallagher, court reporter, pp. 1-20. Subsequent page numbers from there.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“As I already stated I saw Eichmann for the last time when he was ordered to
report to the Reichsfiihrer SS in Berlin, towards the end of March, or begin¬
ning of April, in order to give him facts and figures about the destruction of
the Jews, and he told me he was going to Prague afterwards. This is the last I
heard of Eichmann. ”

Jaari’s question whether Eichmann “visited Auschwitz several times” were
answered by Hoss in the affirmative (p. 15).

5. The Interrogation of April 4, 1946

The next interrogation took place in the afternoon of the following day, April
4, 1946. 47 It touched on the conflict between Kaltenbrunner and Pohl, the Da¬
chau and Riga camps. In this context, Hoss was asked whether the eastern
camps were subject to the Concentration Camp Inspectorate. Hoss replied that
this the case for the camps in the Baltic countries, such as Riga, for Lublin,
Warsaw and Krakow. At this point, Jaari asked (p. 5):

“Q. Plow about Treblinka, Wolzek and Belzek?

A. They came under the commander of the Security Police and Iligher SS and
Police Leader of Krakow. ”

Later, the interrogation returned to Auschwitz:

“Didn 'tyou exterminate around three million Jews in Auschwitz?

A. No, I never said three million.

Q. What did you say?

A. Two million.

Q. You said two million and a half were gassed?

A. Yes.

Q. And half a million just died because of diseases and epidemics?

A. Yes.

Q. Is that three million altogether, or isn 7 it?

A. Yes, but not three million were exterminated.

Q. If you gassed a person, was he executed, or not?

A. But I merely wanted to point out that the half a million that died from dis¬
eases were not executed.

Q. So only two and one-half million were executed?

A. There were. ”

Asked about the mistreatment of prisoners in Auschwitz, Hoss said that this
happened, but not as common practice.

“Q. But Pal its ch indulged in quite a lot of beatings, didn 7 he?

47 Ibid., 4 April 1946, 1430 to 1630, by Capt. Seymour Krieger, and Mr. S. Jaari, Interrogators. Also
present: Mr. George Sackheim, Interpreter, and Mr. Charles J. Gallagher, Court Reporter, pp. 1-
12. Subsequent page numbers from there.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. That may be, but / do not know that. / can not deny it because / do not know
anything about it.

Q. And Moll?

A. No. Moll always had a superior work commander. Whenever / wanted an
extra good job done, I would send Moll. ” (p. 12)

6. The Affidavit of April 5, 1946

I start by presenting the text of this document: 48

“Office of US Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality APO
124a, US Army
Interrogation Division
AFFIDA VIT.

I, RUDOLF FRANZ FERDINAND HOESS, being first duly sworn, depose and
say as follows:

1. I am forty-six years old, and have been a member of the NSDAP since 1922;
a member of the SS since 1934; a member of the Waffen-SS since 1939. I was a
member from 1 December 1934 of the SS Guard Unit, the so-called Deaths-
head Formation (Totenkopf Verb and).

2. I have been constantly associated with the administration of concentration
camps since 1934, serving at Dachau until 1938; then as Adjutant in Sachsen-
hausen from 1938 to May 1, 1940, when / was appointed Commandant of
Auschwitz. I commanded Auschwitz until 1 December, 1943, and estimate that
at least 2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gassing
and burning, and at least another half million succumbed to starvation and
disease, making a total dead of about 3,000,000. This figure represents about
70% or 80% of all persons sent to Auschwitz as prisoners, the remainder hav¬
ing been selected and used for slave labor in the concentration camp indus¬
tries. Included among the executed and burnt were approximately 20,000 Rus¬
sian prisoners of war (previously screened out of Prisoner of War cages by the
Gestapo) who were delivered at [sic] Auschwitz in Wehrmacht transports op¬
erated by regular Wehrmacht officers and men. The remainder of the total
number of victims included about 100,000 German Jews, and great numbers
of citizens, mostly Jewish from Holland, France, Belgium, Poland, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Greece, or other countries. We executed about 400,000 Hun¬
garian Jews alone at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944.

3. WVHA (Main Economic and Administration Office), headed by Obergrup-
penfuehrer Oswald Pohl, was responsible for all administrative matters such
as billeting, feeding and medical care, in the concentration camps. Prior to es¬
tablishment of the RSHA, Secret State Police Office (Gestapo) and the Reich
Office of Criminal Police were responsible for arrests, commitments to con-

PS-3868. Affidavit. See Document 10.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

centration camps, punishments and executions therein. After organization of
the RSHA, all of these functions were carried on as before, but, pursuant to
orders signed by Heydrich as Chief of the RSHA. While Kaltenbrunner was
Chief of RSHA, orders for protective custody, commitments, punishment and
individual executions were signed by Kaltenbrunner or by Mueller, Chief of
the Gestapo, as Kaltenbrunner's deputy.

4. Mass executions by gassing commenced during the summer 1941 and con¬
tinued until Fall 1944. I personally supervised executions at Auschwitz until
the first of December 1943 and know by reason of my continued duties in the
Inspectorate of Concentration Camps WVHA that these mass executions con¬
tinued as stated above. All mass executions by gassing took place under the di¬
rect order, supervision and responsibility of RSHA. I received all orders for
carrying out these mass executions directly from RSHA.

5. On 1 December 1943 I became Chief of AMT I in AMT Group D of the
WVHA and in that office was responsible for coordinating all matters arising
between RSHA and concentration camps under the administration of WVHA. I
held this position until the end of the war. Pohl, as Chief of WVHA, and Kal¬
tenbrunner, as Chief of RSHA, often conferred personally and frequently
communicated orally and in writing concerning concentration camps. On 5
October 1944, I brought a lengthy report regarding Mauthausen Concentra¬
tion Camp to Kaltenbrunner at his office at RSHA, Berlin. Kaltenbrunner
asked me to give him a short oral digest of this report and said he would re¬
serve any decision until he had had an opportunity to study it in complete de¬
tail. This report dealt with the assignment to labor of several hundred prison¬
ers who had been condemned to death — so-called ‘nameless prisoners ’.

6. The final solution ’ of the Jewish question meant the complete extermination
of all Jews in Europe. I was ordered to establish extermination facilities at
Auschwitz in June 1941. At that time, there were already in the general gov¬
ernment three other extermination camps; Belzek, Treblinka and Wolzekf
These camps were under the Einsatzkommando of the Security’ Police and SD.
I visited Tremblinka [sic] to find out how they carried out their exterminations.
The Camp Commandant at Tremblinka told me that he had liquidated 80,000
in the course of one-half year. He was principally concerned with liquidating
all the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto.

He used monoxide gas and I did not think that his methods were very efficient.
So when I set up the extermination building at Auschwitz, I used Cyclon B.
which was a crystallized Prussic acid which we dropped into the death cham¬
ber from a small opening. It took from 3 to 15 minutes to kill the people in the
death chamber depending upon climatic conditions. We knew when the people
were dead because their screaming stopped. We usually waited about one-half
hour before we opened the doors and removed the bodies. After the bodies

These names are almost illegible in the original document.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

were removed our special commandos took off the rings and extracted the gold
from the teeth of the corpses.

7. Another improvement we made over Tremblinka was that we built our gas
chambers to accommodate 2,000 people at one time, whereas at Tremblinka
their 10 gas chambers only accommodated 200 people each. The way we se¬
lected our victims was as follows: we had two SS doctors on duty at Auschwitz
to examine the incoming transports of prisoners. The prisoners would be
marched by one of the doctors who would make spot decisions as they walked
by. Those who were fit for work were sent into the Camp. Others were sent
immediately to the extermination plants. Children of tender years were invari¬
ably exterminated since by reason of their youth they were unable to work.
Still another improvement we made over Tremblinka was that at Tremblinka
the victims almost always knew that they were to be exterminated and at
Auschwitz we endeavored to fool the victims into thinking that they were to go
through a debusing process. Of course, frequently they realized our true in¬
tentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties due to that fact. Very fre¬
quently women would hide their children under the clothes but of course when
we found them we would send the children in to be exterminated. We were re¬
quired to carry out these exterminations in secrecy but of course the foul and
nauseating stench from the continuous burning of bodies permeated the entire
area and all of the people living in the surrounding communities knew that ex¬
terminations were going on at Auschwitz.

8. We received from time to time special prisoners from the local Gestapo of¬
fice. The SS doctors killed such prisoners by injections of benzine. Doctors had
orders to write ordinary death certificates and could put down any reason at
all for the cause of death.

9. From time to time we conducted medical experiments on women inmates,
including sterilization and experiments relating to cancer. Most of the people
who died under these experiments hat been already condemned to death by the
Gestapo.

10. Rudolf Mildner was the chief of the Gestapo at Kattowicz AND AS SUCH
WAS HEAD OF THE POLITICAL DEPARTMENT AT AUSCHWITZ WHICH
CONDUCTED THIRD DEGREE METHODS OF INTERROGATION^^ from
approximately March 1941 until September 1943. As such, he frequently sent
prisoners to Auschwitz for incarceration or execution. He visited Auschwitz on
several occasions. The Gestapo Court, the SS Standgericht, which tried per¬
sons accused of various crimes, such as escaping Prisoners of War, etc., fre¬
quently met within Auschwitz, and Mildner often attended the trial of such per¬
sons, who usually were executed in Auschwitz following their sentence. I
showed Mildner throughout the extermination plant at Auschwitz and he was
directly interested in it since he had to send the Jews from his territory for ex¬
ecution at [sic] Auschwitz. Mildner introduced one unique punishment at

Handwritten phrase with upper-case letters.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Auschwitz, namely: binding an inmate’s hands to his knees around a rod. The

prisoner would then he revolved round the rod while he was beaten . ^ 1 1
/ understand English as it is written above. The above statements are true; this
declaration is made by me voluntarily and without compulsion; after reading
over the statement, I have signed and executed the same at Nurnberg [sic],
Germany on the fifth day of April 1946.

Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoess [with his handwritten signature].

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 5th day of April, 1946, at Nurnberg,
Germany.

Smith W. Brookhart, JR., LT Colonel, IGD [with handwritten signature]. ”

This affidavit had been written directly in English. Three days later, on April
8, the British had Hoss sign a German translation of that document. 52 The pur¬
pose was undoubtedly procedural in nature, because the text was presented as
a “Translation of Document No. 3868-PS. Office of U.S. Chief Counsel”; At
the end we furthermore find the phrase:

“Ich verstehe English [sic], wie es vorstehend geschrieben ist. ”

(“/ understand English as it is written above. ”)

The final certification, also in German, is not very clear, however:

“der Unterzeichnete, Max Punch, bestatigt, dafi er die deutsche und franzosi-
sche [?] Sprache vollkommen beherrscht und dafi das vorstehende Schriftstuck
eine genaue und wahrheitsgetreue Ubersetzung der ‘Eidesstattlichen Erkla-
rung’ von Rudolf Ferdinand Franz Hoess ist. Nurnberg, den 8. April 1946.
Gez. Max Punch, Sektion X. ”

{“the signer, Max Punch, confirms that he has complete mastery of the Ger¬
man and French [?] languages and that the above document is an exact and
truthful translation of the Eidesstattliche Erkldrung '[Affidavit] by Rudolf
Ferdinand Franz Hoess. Nuremberg, April 8, 1946. sgn. Max Punch, Section
X.’’)

There is a clear contradiction here, because the preceding text is the “ Eid¬
esstattliche Erkldrung ,” hence the translation of the English “Affidavit,” not a
“translation of the ‘ Eidesstattliche Erkldrung.'”

Hoss was informed about this pending German translation he was expected
to sign during the interrogation of April 8, 1946: 53

“Q. The German translation of the English affidavit which you signed will be
ready this afternoon.

A. Yes.

51 Sentence struck out in original.

52 PS-3868. Eidesstattliche Erkldrung. See Document 11.

53 NARA, RG 238, M1270, OCCPAC. Interrogation Records Prepared for War Crimes Proceedings
at Nuernberg 1945-1947, Rudolf Hoss. Testimony of Rudolph [sic] Hoess, taken at Nurnberg,
Germany, 8 April 1946, 1130 - 1230, by Mr. S. Jaari. Also present: George Sackheim, Interpreter;
Piilani A. Ahuna, Court Reporter, pp. 1-14. Quoted: p. 1.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. We will show it to you then, and you may read it through and if there is an¬
ything in the translation which you do not approve of you may make your
changes and sign the German translation.

A. Yes, I understand. ”

His translation was actually presented to him in the afternoon: 54

“Q. We will begin by reading through the German language translation of
your affidavit of 5 April 1946.

A. Yes.

Q. In case you have any changes to be made, will you inform us?

A. Yes.

(The German translation of the affidavit dated 5 April 1946 made by the wit¬
ness is handed to him. The witness reads the affidavit and makes a few correc¬
tions.)

O. Is this now correct and in accordance with the statement you made?

A. Yes.

Q. I will have these few changes made so that it will correspond to what you
consider the right matter.

A. Yes. ”

The German translation indeed has four indecipherable handwritten notes in
the margin; the one on the first page, however, has the date of April 15, 1946.

7. The Interrogation of April 5, 1946

The origin of the affidavit dated April 5, 1946, is clearly explained in the in¬
terrogation to which the former commander of Auschwitz was subjected on
the afternoon of that same day by Brookhart and Harris: 55

“Q. We have prepared an affidavit written in English, and I am placing a copy
before you, and ask it be read into the record. You will examine it, and you
may ask it to be read into the record. You will examine it, and you may ask
your own questions on any thing you do not understand.

A. Yes.

Q. And to make any corrections that are necessary, upon your pointing them
out and they are agreed upon.

A. Yes.

Q. After it has been read and corrected, you may sign it.

A. Yes.

Q. I shall read, and you will read this affidavit.

54 Ibid., 1445 - 1630, by Mr. S. Jaari. Also present: George Sackheim, Interpreter; Piilani A. Ahuna,
Court Reporter, p. 1.

55 Ibid, 5 April 1946, 1430 - 1715, by Lt. Col. Smith W. Brookhart, Jr., OUSCC, and Lt. W.R. Har¬
ris, USNR Interrogators. Also present: Mr. S. Jaari, and Mr. Richard Sonnenfeldt, Interpreters,
and Charles J. Gallagher, Court Reporter, pp. 1-19; here p. 1; next page number from there as
well.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. Yes.

(whereupon the witness reads the affidavit as follows). ”

The next three pages contain the text of the affidavit mentioned above. Colo¬
nel Brookhart then asked Hoss (pp. 4f.):

“You have read this three page affidavit in English. Have you understood eve¬
rything in this affidavit?

A. Yes, I understood everything that / read.

Q. Do you have any question, or questions, as to the meaning of anything that
is written in this affidavit?

A. No, / understand everything therein.

Q. In this affidavit it is stated that above statements are true, and this declara¬
tion is made voluntarily and without compulsion.

A. Yes, that is correct.

Q. And you swear to the accuracy of that affidavit?

A Yes. ”

The declarations of March 16 and 20 mentioned earlier above were “accurate¬
ly translated” to Hoss by Captain Vollmar, which means that he was not able
to understand these relatively short texts.

In the interrogation of 1 April 1946, Sender Jaari asked Hoss: “Do you
speak English?” To which Hoss replied: “I understand some.” 56

So, the former commander of Auschwitz doubtlessly could not understand
perfectly the long and articulated English text of the affidavit of 5 April.

The rest of the interrogation deals with altogether marginal subjects and
references to Auschwitz appear only occasionally; I quote the most important
ones here. On dental gold:

‘‘[Hoss] The dentist of the camp at Auschwitz was responsible for the melting
of this gold extracted from the teeth, and at the end of each month he personal¬
ly would take it to the Medical Chief Office in Berlin (Sanitaetshauptamt). ” (p.
8 )

“Q. How did he carry the gold?

A. He melted it down into gold bars, which he kept locked in his safe, and
when he got the right amount, he would take them down to Berlin in that
shape.

[...].

Q. What was the size of the bars?

A. About twelve to fifteen inches long, about three inches high, and about three
inches thick. I saw a gold bar like that once. ” (p. 10)

With the compilation of Hoss’s affidavit of April 5, 1946, the American inves¬
tigators had obtained a piece of evidence in support of their legal case. When

56 Ibid., 1 April, 1946, 1430 to 1730 by Mr. Sender Jaari and Lt. Whitney Harris. Also present: Mr.
George Sackheim, Court Reporter, p. 1; subsequent page numbers from there unless stated other¬
wise.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

compiling this document, they proved particularly zealous by using not only
all of Hoss’s previous statements, but also by twisting Hoss’s words.

For instance, they made him sign that 400,000 Flungarian Jews had been
“executed” at Auschwitz, although it is clear from the context of the interroga¬
tion that Floss had been referring to the number of deportees. Since, according
to Floss’s claimed verifications, the proportion of those fit for labor was about
30%, the number of gassed Flungarian Jews would have been about 280,000.
Both the Americans and before them the British were unaware of Floss’s con¬
tradictions regarding the number of deportees and the number of those alleged
gassed and deceased due to other causes. I will return to this in Part Two.

Moreover, Hoss never mentioned “monoxide gas” as a means of extermi¬
nation at Treblinka, but rather “Gas von Automotoren ” (“gas from vehicle en¬
gines”).

The beginning of the alleged exterminations at Auschwitz was simplified
to the point of making it meaningless:

“So when I set up the extermination building at Auschwitz, / used Cyclon B,
which was a crystallized Prussic acid which we dropped into the death cham¬
ber from a small opening. ”

The term “extermination building,” in singular, does not even hi nt at what
kind of a facility it was; in fact, as the first extermination facilities, Hoss men¬
tioned “2 old farmhouses” divided into several “gas chambers,” into which
Zyklon B was introduced “through small hatches,” of course in the plural.

The sentence -

“ We were required to cany out these exterminations in secrecy but of course
the foul and nauseating stench from the continuous burning of bodies perme¬
ated the entire area and all of the people living in the surrounding communi¬
ties knew that exterminations were going on at Auschwitz ”

- is a forced interpretation of the affidavit’s compilers, because Hoss had
merely reported:

“When there was an Eastern wind the smell could be noticed across the Vistu¬
la. ”

The entire Paragraph 10 devoted to Rudolf Mildner did not originate from
Hoss’s statements, who mentioned Mildner only in passing in a very general

way:

“Did Mildner visit you in Auschwitz?

A. Yes.

Q. Why?

A. First of all on his capacity as Gestapo Leader he was there frequently for
the turnover ofprisoners and for the Standgerichte, of the SS special courts. ”

57 Ibid., 3 April 1946, 1430 to 1640, by Mr. Jaari, Interrogator. Also present: Mr. Leo Katz, Inter¬
preter, and Charles J. Gallagher, court reporter, p. 19.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Mildner had been captured by the Americans and had already made various
statements. 58 During the Nuremberg IMT, he testified as a witness for the de¬
fense of Kaltenbrunner. 59

8. The Interrogations of April 8, 1946

During the interrogation on the morning of April 8, 1946, 60 Jaari asked Hoss
about the German chemical trust I.G. Farbenindustrie and its representatives.
The interrogator evidently tried to make Hoss state that these representatives,
starting with Dr. Otto Ambros, knew of the alleged extermination, but Hoss
showed himself very recalcitrant. From the questions it can be discerned that
Jaari relied on some imaginative “information” of former detainees (pp. 6fi):
“Q. And what did he say about the extermination plants when he saw them?

A. He never remarked about that. He could never see them.

Q. What are you trying to put over. He is in Auschwitz several times. He spoke
to you. He visited the inmates of the camp and you are trying to tell me that he
didn’t know anything about the main mission of Auschwitz? Do you think I can
believe that?

A. No. I never talked about that to the gentleman and he never asked me any
question as long as we saw each other.

Q. Didn ’t he ask you about the stench you had in there all the time?

A. No. It wasn’t that way. The stench wasn’t in the air all the time.

Q. Alright, there was no stench for say a couple of weeks. Then for 5 or 6
weeks there was a stench. Are you trying to tell me that visitors came when no
action was going on?

A. No, that couldn’t be done. But, as I have said, we never talked about it and
he never asked about it.

Q. The I.G. Far ben works were 7 kilometers from the camp?

A. Yes.

Q. The stench went 50 to 60 kilometers across the Vistula?

A. No.

Q. How far away was the Vistula?

A. The territory was between the Vistula and the Sola river.

Q. How far was it from the extermination camp to the Vistula?

A. 2-1/2 or 3 kilometers, perhaps.

Q. And how far beyond the Vistula could the population smell the stench?

A. I cannot say that. It depended on the wind and the weather.

Q. When the wind was favorable, 10 kilometers?

58 June 27, 1945 (PS-2374), Nov. 4 (PS-2479) and 16, 1945 (2 affidavits: PS-2375 and PS-2376).

59 Affidavit of March 29, 1946, document Kaltenbrunner-1. IMT, Vol. XI, pp. 225-227.

60 NARA, RG 238, M1270, OCCPAC. Interrogation Records Prepared for War Crimes Proceedings
at Nuernberg 1945-1947, Rudolf Hoss. Testimony of Rudolph [sic] Hoess, taken at Numberg,
Germany, 8 April 1946, 1130 - 1230, by Mr. S. Jaari. Also present: George Sackheim, Interpreter;
Piilani A. Ahuna, Court Reporter, pp. 1-14. Subsequent page numbers from there.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. No, / don’t believe it would smell that far away.

Q. 8 kilometers?

A. / never tested that but do not believe that it would reach so far. ”

After this, Jaari asked if the detainees knew of the alleged extermination; Hoss
spoke of the so-called “ Sonderkommando ” without using that term, which he
evidently did not know at all (pp. 7f.):

"[Hoss] There was a certain amount of inmates. Those that worked there also
lived there and did not get together at all with the rest of the inmates.

Q. And at short intervals, these commandos who worked in the extermination
camp were gassed themselves, weren’t they?. ”

This question also originated from statements by former detainees. Hoss re¬
plied:

“According to the orders of the RSHA, the inmates working the extermination
mechanism were to be shot quarterly. However, this was not done.

Q. Was it a standing order from RSHA?

A. Yes. / received that order from Eichmann and it was in effect at all times.

Q. When did you receive that order?

A. The first time when Eichmann was in camp he said that it was to be execut¬
ed in all cases.

Q. And when was that?

A. That was in 1941. ”

Regarding the number of SS men assigned to the alleged extermination, Hoss
declared:

“At one time, during one action, 60 picked people were used to guard the vic¬
tims at these sites. And then there were, in addition to that, there were the
noncoms who were permanently assigned to duty at the crematorium. There
were 5 or 6 men who were on permanent duty there. ” (p. 10)

The interrogation continued in the afternoon, at 2:45 PM, still on the subject
of the I.G Farbenindustrie. Jaari tried repeatedly to have Hoss admit that the
executives of this company were aware of the alleged extermination or were
involved in medical experiments, but the former commander of Auschwitz
proved unyielding. In this context, they also came back to any knowledge that
residents in the camp’s vicinity might have had about the claimed extermina¬
tion. Jaari brought up an argument that became typical: 61

“Q. You know you had accommodations for 130,000 people in Auschwitz,
right?

A. Yes.

Q. And, trainload after trainload, month after month — / know what you are
going to say, with certain intervals and interruptions — hundreds of thousands

Ibid., 1445 - 1630, by Mr. S. Jaari. Also present: George Sackheim, Interpreter; Piilani A. Ahuna,
Court Reporter, p. 1-21, here p. 16.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

of people arrived in the camp. Every normal being, with a little sense, a little
brain, knew that there couldn't be so many people to remain in the camp,
right? So they must have known about the exterminations, that they were just
taken for a ride?

A. But they couldn’t possibly count the number of trains that arrived at the
camp or really have insight into the matter. ”

In his deposition at the Nuremberg IMT, Hoss explained that there were also
trains of inmates who were not slated for extermination, and of materials and
departing trains of prisoners who were transferred (see Part Two, Section 10,
p. 78).

9. The Curriculum Vitae of April 10, 1946

During Session No. 55 of the Eichmann Trial at Jerusalem on May 29, 1961,
the witness Gustave Mark Gilbert (to whom I will return in Subsection 12.1.)
answered a question posed by the General Attorney as follows:

“Well, I was starting to investigate something else. What I was really interest¬
ed in was what makes these Nazis tick. So / was Dying to find out what made
Colonel Hoss tick, how could he do things like this? And in the orderly proce¬
dure of getting a case history on a subject, / asked Colonel Hoss to write an
autobiography telling his entire history from childhood up to the present
time. ”

He then explained that he was referring to the “original autobiography which
Colonel Hoss wrote for me in Nuremberg, for purely psychological purposes,
in his own handwriting.”

This text has always been in Gilbert’s possession, who had used extracts in
his book The Psychology of Dictatorship. In Jerusalem, he showed it to the
General Attorney Gideon Hausner. The document was presented to the Court,
which accepted it, giving it the reference number as T/l 169. 62 It is a handwrit¬
ten text of 31 pages titled “Lebenslaiif’ (curriculum vitae). On page one, next
to the title, we find the date “April 10, 1946,” and on the last page, at the end
of the text, we find the signature “Rudolf Hoss” and the phrase “Nuremberg,
April 12, 1946.” Both dates presumably indicated when Hoss started and fin¬
ished writing this text.

This manuscript has a psychological and introspective character. It is the
story of his life told from the perspective of his family. He writes only briefly
and fleetingly about the camps. The first reference appears on p. 25:

“Now the year 1940 came, and my posting to Auschwitz. Thrilled by my devel¬
opment work at the time, I wrote letters to that effect to my wife, who was then
infected with it as well. ”

State of Israel. Ministry of Justice. The Trial of Adolf Eichmann. Record of Proceedings in the
District Court of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, 1993, Vol. Ill, pp. 1003f.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

On page 26, Hoss mentions his promotion to Sturmbannfuhrer in January
1941, and on page 27, he gives this short account of the alleged extermination
of the Jews:

“The Reichsfiihrer’s order and the implementation of the mass exterminations
made me even more withdrawn.

When I stood near those operations and saw how thousands went to their
deaths, most of them clueless, I frequently had eerie thoughts when thinking
about my family. But over and over again I pulled myself together due to the
order given and its rationale; this order was in my mind day and night. ”

Later he imparts this brief anecdote about a visit to Gauleiter Fritz Bracht:

“During an ... invitation to the Gauleiter’s house, he had earlier hinted at the
mass exterminations to my wife. ”

Hoss’s wife had already heard SS men and inmates talk in the same vein, so
she questioned her husband “about the true facts.” At first, wrote Hoss, he did
not want to talk, because he felt bound by the oath of secrecy that Himmler
had imposed upon him, but when he considered that the Reichsfiihrer himself
had not kept it a secret from the Gauleiter, he decided to reveal the “truth” to
his wife:

“/ told her about the order and its rationale. ”

On the next page, Hoss writes about his transfer from Auschwitz on December
1, 1943. 63

This manuscript is therefore merely of marginal value regarding Hoss’s
statements on the Auschwitz Camp.

10. The Testimony during the IMT (April 15, 1946)

Hoss was summoned by Kaltenbrunner’s defense attorney, Dr. Kauffmann, in
Kaltenbrunner’s defense. 64 He appeared in the courtroom during the morning
session of April 15, 1946, and was first questioned by this lawyer (p. 397):

“Dr. Kauffmann: Yes.

[Turning to the witness.] From 1940 to 1943, you were the Commander of the
camp at Auschwitz. Is that true?

Hoess: Yes.

Dr. Kauffmann: And during that time, hundreds of thousands of human beings
were sent to their death there. Is that correct?

Hoess: Yes.

Dr. Kauffmann: Is it true that you, yourself, have made no exact notes regard¬
ing the figures of the number of those victims because you were forbidden to
make them?

63 T/1169.

64 IMT, Vol. XI, p. 378. Hoss’s testimony spans from p. 396 to p. 422. All subsequent page numbers
from there.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Hoess: Yes, that is correct.

Dr. Kauffmann: Is it furthermore correct that exclusively one man by the name
of Eichmann had notes about this, the man who had the task of organizing and
assembling these people?

Hoess: Yes.

Dr. Kauffmann: Is it furthermore true that Eichmann stated to you that in
Auschwitz a total sum of more than 2 million Jews had been destroyed?

Hoess: Yes. ”

With Hoss’s testimony, Defense Attorney Kauffmann tried to prove that Kal-
tenbrunner was not responsible for alleged extermination of the Jews, since it
had been ordered by Himmler (pp. 398-401):

“Dr. Kauffmann: Is it true that in 1941 you were ordered to Berlin to see
Himmler? Please state briefly what was discussed.

Hoess: Yes. In the summer of 1941 I was summoned to Berlin to Reichsfiihrer
SS Himmler to receive personal orders. He told me something to the effect — I
do not remember the exact words — that the Ftthrer had given the order for a
final solution of the Jewish question. We, the SS, must carry out that order. If
it is not carried out now then the Jews will later an destroy the German peo¬
ple. He had chosen Auschwitz on account of its easy access by rail and also
because the extensive site offered space for measures ensuring isolation .

Dr. Kauffmann: During that conference did Himmler tell you that this planned
action had to be treated as a secret Reich matter?

Hoess: Yes. He stressed that point. He told me that I was not even allowed to
say anything about it to my immediate superior Gruppenfuhrer Glucks. This
conference concerned the two of us only and I was to observe the strictest se¬
crecy.

Dr. Kauffmann: What was the position held by Glucks whom you have just
mentioned?

Hoess: Gruppenfuhrer Glucks was, so to speak, the inspector of concentration
camps at that time and he was immediately subordinate to the Reichsfiihrer.

Dr. Kauffmann: Does the expression ‘secret Reich matter' mean that no one
was permitted to make even the slightest allusion to outsiders without endan¬
gering his own life?

Hoess: Yes, ‘secret Reich matter’ means that no one was allowed to speak
about these matters with any person and that everyone promised upon his life
to keep the utmost secrecy.

Dr. Kauffmann: Did you happen to break that promise?

Hoess: No, not until the end of1942.

Dr. Kauffmann: Why do you mention that date? Did you talk to outsiders after
that date?

Hoess: At the end of 1942 my wife’s curiosity was aroused by remarks made
by the then Gauleiter of Upper Silesia, regarding happenings in my camp. She
asked me whether this was the truth and I admitted that it was. That was my

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

only breach of the promise I had given to the Reichsfiihrer. Otherwise I have
never talked about it to anyone else.

Dr. Kauffmann: When did you meet Eichmann?

Hoess: I met Eichmann about 4 weeks after having received that order from
the Reichsfiihrer. He came to Auschwitz to discuss the details with me on the
carrying out of the given order. As the Reichsfiihrer had told me during our
discussion, he had instructed Eichmann to discuss the carrying out of the or¬
der with me and I was to receive all further instructions from him.

Dr. Kauffmann: Will you briefly tell whether it is correct that the camp of
Auschwitz was completely isolated, describing the measures taken to insure as
far as possible the secrecy of carrying out of the task given to you.

Hoess: The Auschwitz camp as such was about 3 kilometers away from the
town. About 20,000 acres of the surrounding countiy had been cleared of all
former inhabitants, and the entire area could be entered only by SS men or ci¬
vilian employees who had special passes. The actual compound called 'Birke-
nau, ’ where later on the extermination camp was constructed, was situated 2
kilometers from the Auschwitz camp. The camp installations themselves, that is
to say, the provisional installations used at first were deep in the woods and
could from nowhere be detected by the eye. In addition to that, this area had
been declared a prohibited area and even members of the SS who did not have
a special pass could not enter it. Thus, as far as one could judge, it was impos¬
sible for anyone except authorized persons to enter that area.

Dr. Kauffmann: And then the railway transports arrived. During what period
did these transports arrive and about how many people, roughly, were in such
a transport?

Hoess: During the whole period up until 1944 certain operations were carried
out at irregular intervals in the different countries, so that one cannot speak of
a continuous flow of incoming transports. It was always a matter of 4 to 6
weeks. During those 4 to 6 weeks two to three trains, containing about 2,000
persons each, arrived daily. These trains were first of all shunted to a siding in
the Birkenau region and the locomotives then went back. The guards who had
accompanied the transport had to leave the area at once and the persons who
had been brought in were taken over by guards belonging to the camp. They
were there examined by two SS medical officers as to their fitness for work.
The internees capable of work at once marched to Auschwitz or to the camp at
Birkenau and those incapable of work were at first taken to the provisional in¬
stallations, then later to the newly constructed crematoria.

Dr. Kauffmann: During an interrogation I had with you the other day you told
me that about 60 men were designated to receive these transports, and that
these 60 persons, too, had been bound to the same secrecy described before.
Do you still maintain that today?

Hoess: Yes, these 60 men were always on hand to take the internees not capa¬
ble of work to these provisional installations and later on to the other ones.
This group, consisting of about ten leaders and subleaders, as well as doctors

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

and medical personnel, had repeatedly been told, both in writing and verbally,
that they were bound to the strictest secrecy as to all that went on in the
camps.

Dr. Kauffmann: Were there any signs that might show an outsider who saw
these transports arrive, that they would be destroyed or was that possibility so
small because there was in Auschwitz an unusually large number of incoming
transports, shipments of goods and so forth?

Hoess: Yes, an observer who did not make special notes for that purpose could
obtain no idea about that because to begin with not only transports arrived
which were destined to be destroyed but also other transports arrived continu¬
ously, containing new internees who were needed in the camp. Furthermore,
transports likewise left the camp in sufficiently large numbers with internees
fit for work or exchanged prisoners. The trains themselves were closed, that is
to say, the doors of the freight cars were closed so that it was not possible,
from the outside, to get a glimpse of the people inside. In addition to that, up
to 100 cars of materials, rations, et cetera, were daily rolled into the camp or
continuously left the workshops of the camp in which war material was being
made.

Dr. Kauffmann: And after the arrival of the transports were the victims
stripped of everything they had? Did they have to undress completely; did they
have to surrender their valuables? Is that true?

Hoess: Yes.

Dr. Kauffmann: And then they immediately went to their death?

Hoess: Yes.

Dr. Kauffmann: I ask you, according to your knowledge, did these people
know what was in store for them?

Hoess: The majority of them did not, for steps were taken to keep them in
doubt about it and suspicion would not arise that they were to go to their
death. For instance, all doors and all walls bore inscriptions to the effect that
they were going to undergo a debusing operation or take a shower. This was
made known in several languages to the internees by other internees who had
come in with earlier transports and who were being used as auxiliary crews
during the whole action.

Dr. Kauffmann: And then, you told me the other day, that death by gassing set
in within a period of 3 to 15 minutes. Is that correct?

Hoess: Yes.

Dr. Kauffmann: You also told me that even before death finally set in, the vic¬
tims fell into a state of unconsciousness?

Hoess: Yes. From what I was able to find out myself or from what was told me
by medical officers, the time necessary for reaching unconsciousness or death
varied according to the temperature and the number of people present in the
chambers. Loss of consciousness took place within a few seconds or a few
minutes. [...]

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Dr. Kauffmann: I ask you whether Himmler inspected the camp and convinced
himself, too, of the process of annihilation?

Hoess: Yes. Himmler visited the camp in 1942 and he watched in detail one
processing from beginning to end.

Dr. Kauffmann: Does the same apply to Eichmann?

Hoess: Eichmann came repeatedly to Auschwitz and was intimately acquaint¬
ed with the proceedings. ”

The following pages relate to Kaltenbrunner’s position and other matters unre¬
lated to Auschwitz. Hoss was then questioned by American Colonel Amen (p.
414):

“Col. Amen: Witness, you made an affidavit, did you not, at the request of the
Prosecution?

Hoess: Yes.

Col. Amen: I ask that the witness be shown Document 3868-PS, which will be¬
come Exhibit USA-819.

[The document was submitted to the witness.]

Col. Amen: You signed that affidavit voluntarily, Witness?

Hoess: Yes.

Col. Amen: And the affidavit is true in all respects?

Hoess: Yes. ”

In truth, however, the statement had been compiled by the “prosecution” and
was then submitted to Hoss for his signature. Hoss did not protest in any way
against Colonel Amen’s obvious lie.

The interrogator then read the document, beginning with Paragraph 2, on
the 3 million Auschwitz victims, 2 million of whom died by way of “gas¬
sings,” of the killing of 20,000 Russian prisoners of war, and the “gassing” of
400,000 Hungarian Jews. He wrapped this up by asking (p. 415):

“That is all true, Witness? ”

Hoss, under oath, answered:

“Yes, it is. ”

When specifically asked, he confirmed the last figure once more (ibid.):

“Col. Amen: Witness, at the close of Paragraph 2, namely, that the 400,000
Hungarian Jews alone at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944 were executed? is
[sic] that 1944 or 1943?

Hoess: 1944. Part of that figure also goes back to 1943; only a part. I cannot
give the exact figure; the end was 1944, autumn of1944. ”

After reading Paragraph 5, which contains the story of Hi mm ler’s order in
June 1941, of the existence at the time of the three extermination camps at
Belzek, Treblinka and Wolzek, and of Hoss’s visit to Treblinka, where in the
previous six months 80,000 Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto had been killed (p.
416), Amen asked: “Is that all true and correct, Witness?,” Hoss, still under

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

oath, replied: “Yes” (p. 417). Likewise, he confirmed the veracity of Para¬
graph 7, in which are described, among other things, the improvements of the
extermination techniques implemented at Auschwitz as against the 10 “gas
chambers” at Treblinka (ibid.).

During the re-examination, Attorney Kauffmann asked for clarification on
the 500,000 Auschwitz victims that had “died through starvation and disease”:
had they died at the end of the war or earlier?

“Hoess: No, it all goes back to the last years of the war, that is beginning with
the end of 1942. ” (p. 419)

Due to the crematoria, Hoss affirmed, the local residents had come to realize
that an extermination was under way at Auschwitz. Kauffmann made an im¬
portant observation on this (p. 420):

“Did not, at an earlier period of time — that is, before the beginning of this
special extermination action — something of this nature take place to remove
people who had died in a normal manner in Auschwitz?

Hoess: Yes, when the crematoria had not yet been built we burned in large pits
a large part of those who had died and who could not be cremated in the pro¬
visional crematoria of the camp; a large number — I do not recall the figure
anymore — were placed in mass graves and later also cremated in these
graves. That was before the mass executions of Jews began. ”

11. Rudolf Hoss versus Otto Moll
11.1. Moll’s Interrogation of April 15, 1946

The former SS Hauptscharfuhrer Otto Moll was at that time also in U.S. cus¬
tody at Nuremberg. He had already been tried at the Dachau Trial (November
15 through December 13, 1945) and had been sentenced to death there on 13
December 1945. The sentence was carried out on May 28, 1946.

During the proceedings, he had stated without hesitation on December 5
and 6, 1945, that he had served in Auschwitz:

“Q. Moll, when did you join the SS?

A. The 1st of May 1935.

Q. And after you joined the SS in May 1935, to what unit where you assigned?
A. To SS Guard Unit Brandenburg.

Q. And where [were] you stationed at that time?

A. Oranienburg.

Q. And after you left Oranienburg, where did you go to?

A. I was transferred to Auschwitz as a gardener, to build up a garden there, by
the Economic Main Office of the administration.

Q. How long did you remain at this concentration camp?

A. From 1941 until January of1945.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. And after you left Construction Camp Auschwitz, you came to Kaufering, is
that correct?

A. I wasn’t in the Construction Camp Auschwitz. The Main Office of Economic
Administration was a separate section. It was only called Auschwitz.

Q. And you never at any time had any contact with the prisoners at Auschwitz?
A. Some German criminal prisoners, and some female workers sent to the gar¬
den. ”

Moll declared that he had been transferred to Kaufering on February 28, 1945,
where he remained until April 24 or 25. The witness Karl Stroh had accused
him of having beaten three prisoners; Moll confirmed this. The three detain¬
ees, he explained, had abandoned work without permission and were baking
stolen potatoes. Fie inflicted on them “several hits with a stick over their but¬
tocks.”

Witness for the prosecution Metzler stated that Moll had killed 26 detain¬
ees during an evacuation march in April 1945. Moll replied that he merely had
escorted a group of 150 Ukrainian civilian workers. During that evacuation
march, he had encountered a transport of German troops who had with them
also German prisoners, plus one Pole and two Canadians. Nobody was killed,
Moll insisted. 65

Moll’s alleged extermination career at Auschwitz was summarized by
Franciszek Piper as follows (Piper 2000a, p. 237):

“Kommandofuhrer of the detail employed at the gas ‘bunkers’ and burying
and burning of corpses, summer-autumn, 1942. Obtained Military Cross of
Merit First Class with Sword, April 30, 1943. Removed from post of director
of Gliwice sub-camp by Hoss in May 1944 and appointed director and chief of
crematoria. ”

During the Belsen Trial (September 17 through November 17, 1945), this had
already been “established” - thanks to the deposition of Charles Sigismund
Bendel on October 1 - and had become an indisputable “notorious fact”; this
explains the U.S. investigators’ interest in this SS officer: they wanted him to
“confess” what the witnesses had accused him of.

Moll was questioned by a certain Brookhart on April 15, 1946. Moll stated
that during that interrogation that he was assigned to the Monowitz Camp at
the end of 1942, where he remained until early 1944, at which point he was
transferred to the Gleiwitz Camp. Fie served there until January 1945. 66
The interrogation continued as follows: 67

65 United Nations War Crimes Commission Archives, Dachau Concentration Camp Case, Vol. II,
pp. 1433f.

66 NARA, RG 238, M1270, OCCPAC. Interrogation Records Prepared for War Crimes Proceedings
at Nuernberg 1945-1947, Otto Moll. Testimony of Otto Moll, taken at Numberg, Germany, 15
April 1946, 1530 to 1700, by Lt. Col. S.W. Brookhart. Jr., Lt. W. R. Harris, USN, Interrogators.
Also present: Mr. Richard Sonnenfeldt, Interpreter, and Mr. J. Gallagher, Court reporter, pp. 1-15,
here pp. 5f.

67 Ibid., pp. 7-15.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“Q. When were you at Birkenau?

A. I was never stationed in Birkenau.

Q. Tell us what you had to do at Birkenau?

A. In the summer of 1944, I don’t remember the month more, I received a writ¬
ten order to be prepared for duty of a short duration in the camp at Auschwitz,
and to report upon arrival there at Obersturmbannfuehrer Hoess.

Q. Who signed that order?

A. The order was signed by my superior officer, SS Captain Schwartz. An old¬
er man came to replace me at the camp where I had been, and then I left there
to report to Auschwitz.

Q. What did you do there?

A. There I received an order from Hoess to take over a working detail, and he
said that it was an old working detail which had been at the crematorium. I
then asked him why I had been chosen for this job since my duties had always
been on the outside. He told me that no more suitable people with long service
were on hand for this job. He added that this was an official order, and noth¬
ing could be done about it except to carry out the order.

Q. All right. Tell us about what you did.

A. I took over a working detail which was responsible for the cremation of the
dead inmates. The work detail was furnished by Camp Birkenau. When I took
over this work detail I was informed of the following: If any of prisoners es¬
caped, I would be put up before a court martial, and would be shot by order of
the Reichsfuehrer.

Q. Who told you that?

A. The officer in charge of the camp told me. However, I can not remember his
name because those officers changed rather rapidly.

Q. What guard were you given to work with?

A. I received a guard detail from the guards.

Q. And what did you do?

A. After I took over a work detail I was conducted to a place where the dead
inmates were laid, and they were cremated. The work detail was old and expe¬
rienced, as they had been doing this for a long time, and I just left them to
their devices.

Q. How many were there in the work detail?

A. There were one-hundred fifty men in this work detail.

Q. Were they prisoners?

A. Yes, they were prisoners.

Q. How long had this work prevailed while you were operating?

A. I do not know. The only thing I know is that this work detail had been work¬
ing for a long time, and I never inquired as to the necessaiy length of time.

Q. Were the work details eventually executed and cremated themselves, and
then other details would substitute for them?

A. No. If it was I never experienced it. I left there after my tour of duty of two
months, and returned to my former camp in Gleiwitz.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. How many bodies were burned in this crematorium during those two
months?

A. I don 7 know the number, and, therefore, I cannot tell you, but at any rate
there were very many.

Q. Could you estimate in round numbers, say, thousands?

A. I do not want to tie myself down to numbers, but it was many thousands.

Q. Were the work details divided in teams, and how many men in a team?

A. The entire detail was divided into work groups. There was one group who
was only responsible for stoking the furnaces; one for actually throwing the
bodies into the dump; one for getting the bodies into the furnaces; one for
cleaning up, and there were regular relief crews.

Q. How many furnaces were operating?

A. I believe that there were two cremating installations with twelve each, and
there were two more with two furnaces each.

Q. All operating at the same time?

A. No, not always.

Q. There could be as many as twenty-eight furnaces operating. How many of
those would you say operated during the two months you were there?

A. Well, in order to have you understand what was the task there, I’ll start
from the beginning. During the time I was there quite a number of transports
were arriving from Hungary. These people had been arrested by Kaltenbrun-
ner’s boys, and brought to the camp by them, that is, the Sipo. Usually, those
transports would arrive in a terrible condition. Some of the cars were already
filled with corpses when they got there. However, I did not have any boys pre¬
sent during the unloading, because they were not supposed to be anywhere
around there. The people that I saw came from Hungary.

Q. This was during the two months of the summer of 1944?

A. Yes. I cannot say much more about the transports than I have stated al¬
ready, because I did not have much of an opportunity to see what was going
on, but I know there was a special work detail made up of prisoners who were
responsible for unloading the transports, and for handling of the wreckage
[sic; probably: baggage]. Then the camp doctors right there whenever the
transports arrived examined the prisoners, and sorted them out.

Q. Did you ever see that done?

A. Yes, I saw that.

Q. Will you tell us about it?

A. The people would be put in a long formation, and they would file past the
doctors. The doctors would move those that they thought could work over to
the left, and those they thought could not work over to the right. The number of
those on the right were far greater, because there were a great number of aged
and sick people who could not be expected to work.

Q. Did that include men, women and children?

A. I only saw a few of them, but there were children there. It was sorted out
according to what was contained in the transports when they arrived.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. The doctors would make their selections merely as the victims walked by?

A. Yes, they were sorted out just as they came out of the transports.

Q. What happened to the small children?

A. They went with that part of the transport declared unfit for work.

Q. At what age was a child considered large enough to work?

A. Later I saw some children and I think they were around fourteen who were
used as apprentices in the labor camps to learn the various trades. I do not
know at what age that was so because we could not talk about that with the
doctors.

Q. After the able bodied had been removed, what happened to the others?

A. Those declared unfit for work were led by the officer of the day, usually he
would be an officer of the guards, to the cremating installations under a
guard. When the new arrivals came in, the crematorium detail, including the
guards, and myself, were led to a special room where we had to stay whenever
the transports came in, so we could have nothing to do with them.

Q. What happened then?

A. Then the groups that had come in with the transport were led into a special
room, or rooms, and there they would met by an interpreter from the admin¬
istration. It would be explained to them they would have to turn in all their
personal belongings, and to take off their clothes. When this happened only an
officer of the administration was present, and a number of the doctors, and the
interpreters, whom I mentioned before were prisoners, but none of the subor¬
dinates, or subordinate leaders in the camp were allowed to be present.

Q. Go ahead.

A. The people that had collected in this room were led away in small groups
by the doctors personally present, and they were either killed by gas, or some
times as / have heard by injections, but / do not know much about that.

Q. How did they do the gassing?

A. / do not know just how the gassing was done, because people like me just
were not allowed to be present, but / understand that there was some kind of
an opening in this room by which the gas came in.

Q. Let's tell it straight while going [at] it. You had charge of the gassing dur¬
ing those two months?

A. No, that is not so, and that is just what I mentioned to you. When I was in
Landsberg I was accused of having carried out the gassing, and that is why I
talked to the officer, and I demanded to be confronted with the commandant of
the camp, or anybody else who had been in a higher position in the camp, be¬
cause they would be able to confirm my statement of never having anything to
do with the gassing.

Q. Let’s go back to the meeting of the transports. You had something to do
with the telling ofprisoners they had to undress, and so forth, didn ’tyou?

A. No, that is not so, because / only speak German, and did not speak any for¬
eign languages.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. You already said there were interpreters there. What / mean, you were the
SS person who directed the operation to get them ready for the gassing.

A. No, the administration was responsible for that, the people would turn in
their belongings, and to see that all of those things were carried out.

Q. We know the administration is responsible. Let’s tell it straight while we go
along. Let's get the responsibility> on the right people.

A. The responsibility was with those people who saw the actual killings, the
doctors.

Q. First, start with the commandant, who was he?

A. The commandant at that time was Hoess.

Q. Then who was under him?

A. His next subordinate was Kramer.

Q. Joseph Kramer?

A. / do not know his first name, but he was a Hauptsturmfuehrer (Captain).

Q. Was he the same Kramer who was at Belsen-Bersen [sic] ?

A. / saw his picture once in the newspaper, that was the same man.

Q. Were both Hoess and Kramer at Birkenau those two months that you were
there?

A. Yes.

Q. Who was the next one?

A. Untersturmfuehrer Hoessler, and Schwarzhuber; and all the officers of the
unit, but / don t remember their names.

Q. Can you remember any of their names?

A. / remember one Obersturmfuehrer Schindler.

Q. All right, who else?

A. / remember the officer in charge of the administration, he was Oberstunn-
bannfuehrer (Lt. Col.) Moeckel. Then there were the doctors, Sturmbannfueh-
rer Wuerz [Wirths], and Obersturmfuehrer Tylo [Thilo].

Q. Were there any dental officers there?

A. Yes, there were also dental officers there.

Q. What are their names?

A. I cannot remember any more their names, because the doctors changed
constantly, and there was also a Hungarian doctor but I have forgotten his
name, too.

Q. A SS doctor?

A. Yes, he was a SS doctor.

Q. You said that there were certain of the prisoners who were doctors, and
had something to do with this?

A. No. There were some prisoners who were doctors in name only, but they
had nothing to do with this.

Q. Who of these names were responsible for the gassing operations?

A. Wuertz, he was the Chief doctor. Every day he furnished an officer of the
day, and a doctor responsible for the gassing. Wuertz was not always present,
but / have seen him making out documents together with the officer of the day.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. How were these names posted for the day’s work, and where did they get
the order?

A. I do know just they were published. They just appeared there.

Q. Did the same people appear day after day. If not, how often did they
change?

A. No. The doctors and the officer changed constantly. Something happened
eveiy day in actions like this almost daily, and the officers would change con¬
stantly.

Q. And you were there every day.

A. No.

Q. How often?

A. Every second day.

Q. Alternate days was your regular assignment.

A. Yes, that was my regular duty with the work detail.

Q. How long did it take to complete a gassing operation?

A. The actual killing process last about half a minute, but I really cannot say
for sure, because we were never permitted to be near there when it was going
on. I remember one day I talked to a doctor about this, and I asked him why all
these killings, because I thought that it was really very bad for the German
people.

Q. Do you know his name?

A. I don't remember his name any more, but he told me he did not like to do it,
but he was a soldier, and he was following orders of the Reichsfuehrer and the
Reich Gouvernment. Then I asked him why it was being done by gas, and he
said that some department had tried out various ways, after which it was found
that gas was the best and easiest way, and, moreover this was a most beautiful
death anybody could have, anyway.

Q. Did that make you feel better?

A. Well, you could not say such things, because you could not start to have any
feelings about such matters. It was simply our duty to cany out, and nobody
liked to do it, and many times we protested to officers there, but in the German
Army you just carry out an order when you receive it, and that is all there is to
it. ”

At the end, Moll assured he had told “a true story” and that he would continue
to tell the truth.

11.2. Hoss’s Interrogation of April 16, 1946

On April 16, 1946, Hoss was interrogated by Lieutenant Colonel Brookhart
about Moll. Between 1938 and 1940, Moll served at the Sachsenhausen Camp
as a gardener responsible for all the camp’s gardens. In 1941, he was trans¬
ferred to Auschwitz and employed “in the agriculture establishment” and put

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

in charge “of a work detail.” Hoss then recounted Moll’s alleged involvement
in the claimed extermination: 68

“When the extermination action started in 1941, I took Moll as a subordinate
leader for one of these farm buildings. He served here, however I cannot give
you any particular details because he did not in any way become conspicuous.
He was responsible for the supervision at this place over the prisoners that
were employed there including the guards who were responsible for the secu¬
rity of the prisoners. This farm that / mentioned was the place where the pris¬
oners were being gassed and Moll was responsible to see that they were taken
into the houses, that everything was being done, and after they were gassed
and the bodies removed, that the teeth were pulled and all those other details
which I gave you the other day.

Q. Then he was responsible for the gassing, the removal of bodies, the cremat¬
ing, and all of that?

A. Yes, he was responsible for that.

Q. Was he also responsible for the disposal of the bodies gassed there? By
cremation?

A. That too, yes. Especially that particularly and before that I had used Moll to
effect the burning of the corpses who were lying in mass graves out in the
open. [...]

He carried out these duties with great independence and / did not have to wor¬
ry at all about his work detail. Later, in 1942, when the crematorium was fin¬
ished, Moll was put in charge by me of one-half of the entire extermination in¬
stallations. Later, when larger intervals came about in extermination actions,
Moll was put in charge of a labor camp on the outside. He was sent to Glei-
witz. [...]

When more extensive actions were started again, Moll was recalled for them.
In 1944 I recalled Moll from his labor camp and used him to supervise the en¬
tire extermination plant.

Q. Why was Moll recalled?

A. Because Moll knew best how to handle the prisoners that worked there. He
knew how to make them work so that everything could be done rapidly.

Q. What were his methods?

A. He knew how to select the prisoner foremen (capos) and by obtaining to¬
bacco and food for the prisoners doing this work he knew how to make them
work willingly to accomplish this task.

Q. Now just what are you talking about? About the gassing operations, the
crematorium operations, or both?

68 NARA, RG 238, M1270, OCCPAC. Interrogation Records Prepared for War Crimes Proceedings
at Nuernberg 1945-1947, Rudolf Hoss. Testimony of Rudolph Hoess taken at Numberg, Germa¬
ny, by Lt. Col. Smith W. Brookhart, Jr., on 16 April 1946, 1015 - 1050. Also present: Richard W.
Sonnenfeldt, Interpreter; Col. H. J. Phillimore (British); Piilani A. Ahuna, Court Report, pp. 1-9,
here pp. 2-4. Subsequent page numbers from there.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. Of course I am talking of both because the entire thing was done by one
work detail. That is, the gassing and the burning was effected by this one de¬
tail.

Q. Are we to understand that you considered Moll the best man you had for
this work? In other words, he was the most efficient killer and exterminator?

A. Yes, there were others but they could not do the work as rapidly and effi¬
ciently as he. ”

Moll, Hoss pointed out, did not take advantage of his task, for example by tak¬
ing jewels or valuables, and he was not driven by racial hatred either.

"Q. What do you know about Moll’s executions by machine gun or pistol?

A. Yes, I know something about that. For instance, somethimes there were in¬
mates who were paralyzed and it was difficult to get [them] into the gas cham¬
bers, and he would kill them by a shot in the neck.

Q. Did he do that personally?

A. Yes.

O. Did you see him do that?

A. Yes.

Q. How many people did he, would you say, destroy that way?

A. It would be difficult to quote a high number or any number at all because it
never occurred, usually, and it would be only a few people in one transport.

Q. Would they add to a few> hundred in a period of time?

A. I do not believe that it would amount to that many. As far as I remember
there might be as many as 10 or 12 of that category in one incoming transport
and as I said before, the number varied greatly.

Q. The estimate of a former inmate who saw some of these killings is that Moll
shot several hundred in the neck in these killings. What do you think of that? ”

This question confirms that the interrogations were conducted on the back¬
ground of the statements made by former detainees, and that the interrogators
knew beforehand what they wanted Hoss to “confess.” Hoss replied:

“Well, of course, if you add up all the years and all the transports that came in
those years, I think it is possible. There may be several hundred distributed
over that period of time. ” (pp. 4f.)

Brookhart’s interest turned to the Gypsies (p. 6):

"Q. Turning now to the month of August, 1944, we are told that 4,000 Gypsies
from the Gypsy camp in Birkenau were gassed to death under Moll’s supervi¬
sion. Do you know anything about that?

A. Well, I know that it is a fact that the Gypsies from Birkenau were gassed. I
was not in Auschwitz at the time, therefore I cannot confirm the exact number.
I know that Moll, at that time, was employed in the extermination camp, how¬
ever, since I wasn’t there, I cannot say with certainty whether Moll was in
charge of that particular operation.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. We are also told that at Birkenau, the greatest number of prisoners gassed
was about 24,000 in a 24-hour period, or an average of 1,000 per hour, which
were mostly Hungarian Jews, and this was done under Moll. Do you know an¬
ything about that?

A. The highest number that I ever heard and know about when I was there was
10,000 in a 24-hour period because that was the actual maximum capacity of
all the extermination plants that we had. ”

He then asked Hoss what he knew about Moll’s mission at Lublin at the end
of 1943; Moll had told him that, along with SS Untersturmfuhrer Franz
Hossler, he had “killed many thousands of people with machine pistols or ma¬
chine guns there”; the two SS Officers “had to report to Gruppenfuehrer Glo-
boscnik [s/c], who, at that time, was the highest SS and police leader in Lu¬
blin” (pp. 6f.). No document attests that Moll and Hossler went to Lublin;
there is no trace about it in the documentation of the camp’s headquarters
( Kommandanturbefehle , Standortbefehle, Standortsonderbefehle).

After some digressions, the theme of Moll’s claimed role in the alleged ex¬
termination activities was resumed (pp. 8f.):

“Q. When you say that Moll was in charge of operations, what steps did that
include? For example, did he meet the transports as they came in? Did he take
charge there? Did he cause the people to be stripped and all these various
steps that you described before?

A. He had nothing to do at all with the transports. His work only started when
those people entered the extermination camp proper.

Q. Would that be while they were still clothed?

A. Yes, only after they arrived there did they have to strip.

Q. Did he have anything to do with the operation before the ablebodied were
selected and the others were designated for extermination?

A. No, that was a matter which virtually only the doctors worked on.

Q. In other words, Moll took over after the selection had been made and he
had charge of exterminating those few unfit for labor?

A. Yes. He had nothing to do with the actual sorting out but I do believe he
went to the station several times, particularly when transports arrived at night
or when we were short of guards. But, as I say, he had nothing to do with the
sorting out.

Q. Did he have anything personally to do with the gassing?

A. You mean with the throwing in of the gas?

Q. Yes.

A. I never saw him do that. There were two non-coms from the medics who
had been specially trained by the doctors for this task and they wore gas
masks and they always threw gas into the chambers.

Q. Do you know Joseph [sic] Kramer?

A. Yes.

Q. Is he the same Kramer who was first in Auschwitz and later in Belsen?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. Yes. ”

11.3. Moll’s Interrogation of April 16, 1946

On the morning of April 16, Moll was interrogated right after Hoss’s interro¬
gation. The first question concerned his arrival at Auschwitz, which took place
on May 1, 1941, and his initial activity at the camp: 69

“Q. Will you tell us about the operation that you had been put in charge of in
the old farmhouse or farm building which was first used as gassing chamber
and what you did there?

A. I didn ’t have any duties in a farmhouse there.

Q. What kind of a building was it?

A. / don’t know just what you are talking about. When / first came to Ausch¬
witz I worked as a gardener.

Q. Yes, we understand that too. What / am talking about is when Hoess, the
commandant, put you in charge of a converted building which was first fixed
up as an extermination plant. This was before the improvements which were
made in 1942.

A. I do not know any farmhouse and / know nothing about these things.

Q. Will you tell us about 1942 when you were put in charge of half of the op¬
erations in the new and improved gas chamber?

A. As / told you yesterday, I wasn't responsible for any extermination in any
camp.

Q. You are a human being and you are not stupid. You probably know you are
going to burn in hell for what you have done, but do you want to add your lies
to it?

A. Well, / am not lying. I am only telling you the truth and / could not be re¬
sponsible for anything because / was only a non-com. / was no officer. I was
no commandant.

Q. That ’.s' still another one. You were responsible for the details — you had
charge of detail of gassing and burning by the thousands.

A. I told you yesterday only for the burning.

Q. You know you are as good as dead man right now?

A. I know that but / am innocent.

Q. You say you are innocent. The chances you have for living are just about as
long as your willingness to talk. Now, do you still say that you are telling the
truth?

A. Well, / told you the truth. / only testified about what I was asked so far. ”
Brookhart then turned to Moll’s transfer from Sachsenhausen to Auschwitz. 70

69 NARA, RG 238, M1270, OCCPAC. Interrogation Records Prepared for War Crimes Proceedings
at Nuernberg 1945-1947, Otto Moll. Testimony of Otto Moll, taken at Numberg, Germany, by Lt.
Col. Smith W. Brookhart. Jr., on 16 April 1946, 1100- 1150. Also present: Col. H. J. Phillimore
(British); Richard Sonnenfeldt, Interpreter; Piilani A. Ahuna, Court Reporter, pp. 1-10, here pp.

If.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“Q. You went to Auschwitz in 1941 and were put in charge of work camps for
farm labor like you told us?

A. Not in 1941. In 1941 I was only responsible for the guarding. I went to the
labor camp in 1943.

Q. In 1941 you were put in charge of this farm building which had been con¬
verted into an extermination plant, and in that capacity you had charge of the
guards and the prisoners that were employed there, and it was your responsi¬
bility to see that any victims sent to that particular set of buildings were ex¬
terminated and their bodies destroyed?

A. They were not gassed.

Q. But they were killed by any means?

A. Not that either. I couldn ’t be responsible for that because I did not have any
command jurisdiction.

Q. You were given command jurisdiction by the commandant of the camp.

A. Not that either. I was responsible for the supervision of the burning of the
corpses.

Q. And the killing of them?

A. The doctors were responsible for the killing.

Q. In 1942 you were put in charge of half of the main operations of gassing
and cremating?

A. Not that either.

Q. Then you were sent out to take charge of the labor camp in 1943 because
there were intervals between the mass operation of exterminations, and you
were in Gleiwitz?

A. Not Gleiwitz. I was transferred from Auschwitz to Monowitz.

Q. As chief of labor details?

A. Yes.

Q. And in 1944 when new and extensive extermination actions were to take
place in Auschwitz, you were recalled?

A. Yes, I was called. I told you that yesterday.

Q. Because you were considered to be the best man to handle the details of
prisoners and guards needed for extermination?

A. I don’t know that and I don’t believe it.

Q. Who else was more efficient than you?

A. That I don't know but there were also other people who were being used for
this work and who did it just just like me. Hoess ought to know that.

Q. Yes, as one man in charge of the detail you took over these transports after
the able-bodied had been selected and from then on it was your responsibility
to see that they were exterminated?

A. No, I didn 't take over any of that. I only took over the work after the gassing
was finished.

70 Ibid., pp. 2-6.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. Why do you persist in this lie that you started to tell yesterday? What do
you hope to gain?

A. Iam not lying. Iam telling you just how it is.

Q. You are lying and you know you are lying. We have competent witnesses
who will show that and I cannot understand why you insist on doing that.

A. I told you yesterday that I was responsible for the cremating. I didn ’t throw
the gas in. I didn 't cany out the killings. Why should I admit to something that
I didn’t do?

Q. You didn’t throw the gas in but you went around and shot the paralyzed
people in the necks, or any of those who couldn’t walk. You personally did
that.

A. No.

Q. You have been seen by many people. You shot hundreds that way.

A. No, they were all gassed.

Q. Don ’t you know they have a special place for liars in hell? They burn much
higher [sic] than other people.

A. That I don’t know.

Q. Being a murderer is one thing, but being a liar is worse.

A. Iam not lying. Iam telling you the truth.

Q. It '.s' your word against many.

A. I do not understand that.

Q. Hoess has seen you, he has followed you through the transports when you
pistoled people to death and shot them through the neck.

A. Then Hoess is trying to white-wash himself. He is the man who is lying.

Q. No, he is telling us everything. He is not like you. He is not lying. He told it
in open court so that the whole world would know. At least he has got it off his
chest but you apparently are going to die with it.

A. I won’t die because of that. I have a pure conscience. I only carried out my
orders as a soldier.

Q. You have no conscience, You are scarcely human. Even your own chief
called you a ‘crazy dog’.

A. Who said that?

Q. Glucks.

A. He called me a dog?

Q. That was what your reputation was.

A. That I don’t know. But I am a victim of these leaders and officers and I shall
go to my death like that.

Q. Then you are an innocent man, I suppose?

A. (The witness nods his head.). ”

The rest of the interrogation concerns the mission of Moll at Lublin-
Majdanek, that is to say, the alleged “ Erntefest” of November 3, 1943.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

11.4. The Confrontation of Hoss and Moll (April 16, 1946)

On the afternoon of April 16, 1946, Moll was brought face-to-face with Hoss,
as Moll had requested. He stated: 71

“In Landsberg / made the request that / be confronted with Rudolf Hoess, the
commandant of the Auschwitz Camp, so that / may testify in front of Hoess and
Hoess may testify in front of me. I request you that this may be granted. I
would like to have Hoess testify in my presence, as I would like to see him
make the statements in my presence and / can testify as to the truth.

Q. Assuming the you are confronted with Hoess, are you going to tell the truth,
or are you going to continue to give us the same kind of a story that you gave
us this morning?

A. No, I want Hoess to come here and state just what orders he gave me and I
can say ‘yes ’ as to what is true or what is not true. Hoess should come here
and say what orders he gave me, what duties I fulfilled and in what manner I
accomplished them and then / can deny or confirm what he says. ”

Hoss was then led into the same room and interrogated about Moll. I repro¬
duce here the essential parts of the confrontation: 72

“Q. [to Hoss] You told us this morning about his first assignment in 1941
when farm buildings were converted into an extermination plant. Will you re¬
state what you said about that?

A. At first he worked on the farm and then later / moved him into the farm¬
house, which was used as a professional [sic; probably: provisional] extermi¬
nation plant. ”

The interrogation continued as follows:

“[Moll] First, I was used in work in connection with the excavation of the
mass graves. Hoess must know that. He is in error if he said that / worked in
the buildings where the gassing was carried out. At first / was used for the ex¬
cavation of the mass graves and he must remember that. Hoess, do you re¬
member Swosten, Blank, Omen, Hatford and Carduck? Those are the people
who worked in the building at the time when you alleged I worked there and I
was working on excavations. Surely Hoess remembers that.

Question directed to Rudolf Hoess:

Q. Is that right?

A. Moll is correct insofar as he says he was first used in the excavations — that
was before he was being usedfor the executions.

Question directed to Otto Moll:

71 NARA, RG 238, M1270, OCCPAC. Interrogation Records Prepared for War Crimes Proceedings
at Nuernberg 1945-1947, Rudolf Hoss. Testimony of Otto Moll and Rudolf Hoess, taken at Num-
berg, Germany by Lt. Col. Smith W. Brookhart, Jr., on 16 April, 1946 - 1415 to 1615. Also pre¬
sent: Richard Sonnenfeldt, Interpreter and Alice Meehan, Court Reporter, pp. 1-25; here p. 1.

72 Ibid., pp. 3-25.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. What is being said here, as I told you this morning, is that you are respon¬
sible for this operation, namely for the killing and destruction of the bodies in
this first improvised slaughter house.

A. / was responsible to see that the corpses were burned after the people were
killed. I was never responsible for the actual supervision of the killing. / was
always the officers or the physicians who were present at the time. As my
commandant, at the time, Hoess should be able to confirm this.

Questions directed to Rudolf Hoess:

Q. What do you say about this?

A. As I said this morning, Moll is only partly correct. As / explained, the gas
was actually thrown into the chamber by the medical personnel and Moll was
not responsible for the supervising the entire process, beginning with the arri¬
val of the transport and the burning of the corpses, he was only responsible for
a part of this process, at least initially.

Q. You did say that he was responsible for seeing these people were extermi¬
nated.

A. I could have been misunderstood. What I said, or meant to say, was the
Moll was responsible in the buildings where he worked. At first, to see that the
people got undressed in orderly fashion, and after they were killed, to see that
the bodies were disposed of in an orderly fashion, later on when the extensive
extermination plant was completed, he was responsible for the entire plant.

Q. Just what operations in the plant was he responsible for?

A. He was responsible for everything up to and including the actual leading
into the gas chambers of the people and after that, to remove the bodies to
burn them.

Q. Will you please repeat about Moll shooting people thru the neck?

A. As I explained this morning, those that were too weak to be moved to the
gas chamber, or who could not be moved for some other reasons, were shot
thru the neck by him or by Polisch [Palitzsch] or some of the other fellows
around, with small caliber arms.

Questions directed to Otto Moll:

Q. Moll, what do you say about that?

A. It may be possible that some of them were shot by me, but it was a compara¬
tively small number and I would like to know if Hoess ever saw me do it.

Q. / told you this morning that Hoess said he saw you do it many times and so
did many others.

Questions directed to Rudolf Hoess:

Q. Hoess, isn't that right?

A. Yes, that is true. / mentioned this morning that there were comparatively
few killed in that manner.

Q. You could not tell if it was a few dozen or a few hundred. That was your
problem.

A. I cannot quote you an exact number — that is impossible for so many years;
there were many. Sometimes there were a few out of each incoming transport

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

and sometimes there were none. That is why I cannot tell you the exact num¬
ber.

Questions directed to Otto Moll:

Q. Well, this is the first thing you have admitted, now you are telling the truth
about which you lied this morning. Are you now’ ready to tell us the truth re¬
garding your responsibility about other operations?

A. Yes, I well tell you the truth as long as my Commandant is present. Let my
Commandant tell you what I did and what my duties were.

Q. We know what Hoess said. What we want to know is your story. You are
asking us for the opportunity to tell your story and that caused us to bring
Hoess in here.

A. No, I asked that I be interrogated in the presence of Hoess.

Question directed to Rudolf Hoess:

Q. You told us this morning that Moll was considered the best man for exter¬
minations because he handled the teams of prisoners and guards better than
your other subordinates. Is that right?

A. Yes.

Questions directed to Otto Moll:

Q. Suppose you tell us what was your method of selection offoremen from the
Capos and just what you found to be the best method of handling the guards
that had charge of the transports after they came in.

A. When I was ordered to do this work, the work detail had already been se¬
lected. My Oberfuehrers had already selected the Capos or foremen, whatever
you call them. I carried out correctly the work in all kinds of weather. I was
never drunk on duty, or when I was with prisoners, and I never mistreated any
of the prisoners. I achieved good success in the work of the prisoners because
I, myself, helped them with their work with my own hands. The prisoners had
respect for me because I always behaved as an exemplary soldier towards
them, therefore, I was designated for any kind of difficult work that came up.
My I ask Hoess to confirm that?

Question directed to Rudolf Hoess:

Q. Is that correct?

A. Yes, that is what I stated this morning.

Questions directed to Otto Moll:

Q. You were decorated for your work, were you not?

A. I received a decoration for my services. Almost all of them who served for a
number of years in the whole of Germany received those decorations. I did not
receive any decorations for special work that I have done like this work. I
would not have wanted to receive a decoration for this kind of work.

Q. Why?

A. Because I did not look upon this work as honorable work.

Q. Did you ever protest?

A. I asked many times why these things had to be done, why they could not be
stopped. I even asked Hoess and he answered that he himself did not like them,

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

but he himself had strict orders and nothing could be done about it. He, like
the rest of us, suffered by this work and none of us were really sane anymore.
Questions addressed to Rudolf Hoess:

Q. Is that right, Hoess?

A. Yes, others also said that and already testified to that in the Reich.

Q. When do you think you lost your sanity’, Hoess?

A. I think you mean that: just when our nerves started to crack. I can testify
that I was not healthy in 1942. I told you about my leave in 1943, however, I
had to do those things as there was no one there who would do it for us. There
were strict orders and they had to be followed. Many of the others felt as I did
and subordinate leaders came to me in the same manner as Moll did and dis¬
cussed it and they had the same feeling.

Q. Do you think that Moll is crazy?

A. No.

Questions addressed to Otto Moll:

Q. How long do you think you have been without your sanity?

A. I did not mean to say that I was insane or I have been insane, what I mean
is that my nerves have cracked and have cracked repeatedly. They were very
bad after the accident I described in 1937; later, they were very bad after I
had an attack of typhus and I was in the hospital and was granted a leave of
absence by the doctors for the condition of my nerves. I was never declared
unfit for duty on account of bad nerves, or because of the so-called Paragraph
51.

Q. How many people do you estimate went thru the operation, which you were
responsible for — how many victims?

A. When you use the words ‘you were responsible’ I want to emphasize again
that I do not wish to have that word applied in any way to the actual killing of
the people, as I was not responsible for the actual physical ending of their
lives and I will not admit that as it is not the fact.

Q. You did not pull the trigger, but you caused someone else to do it. Is that
your position?

A. I do not understand the question.

Q. How many victims were exterminated in the camp from 1941 on?

A. I don’t know the number and I don’t think I would be able to give you any
number at all as far as the total number of victims goes. I believe Hoess might
know that.

Q. The only thing we are interested in is what you have knowledge of.

A. When I was in charge of these excavations, as I told you about before, to¬
gether with another comrade, which was confirmed by Hoess today, we put be¬
tween 30,000 and 40,000 people in those mass graves. It was the most terrible
work that could be carried out by any human being.

Q. Stick to the figures.

A. I don’t know who those people were or how they got there. I only excavated
the mass graves. I was responsible for the burning [of] the bodies right there.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Question addressed to Rudolf Hoess:

Q. How does that figure strike you, Hoess?

A. It is impossible for him to know the exact figures, but they appear to me to
be much too small as far as I can remember today. The people buried in the
two big mass graves of the so-called dugouts, one and two, amounted to
106,000 or 107,000 people.

Questions addressed to Otto Moll:

A. I could not complete the excavation detail, which I mentioned before, I then
got the attack of typhus.

Q. What did you estimate was the number of bodies you handled?

A. It was later they went thru my crematory plant and I would say between
40,000 and 50,000, that is at the crematoiy where I was responsible. I was not
responsible for the two large crematories, as they were two SS corps[ men]
Mussfeld and also Foss [Voss], who were responsible for the two large crema¬
tions and Hoess will remember that.

Q. You tell us about the figures you know.

A. I told you the number, my be 50,000 and possibly there were more.

Q. Is that for all times from 1941 clear to the end?

A. Yes, that is from 1941 for the entire length of my seiwice when I had any¬
thing to do with this matter.

Q. Don 't you think you are much too modest? You had the reputation of being
the biggest killer in Auschwitz. The figures there run into millions. Won’t you
change your answer?

A. It is not true that I was the greatest killer in Auschwitz.

Q. You were the greatest cremator.

A. That is not true either. The number is not right and is possibly brought up
by the men who want me to be punished by death.

Questions addressed to Rudolf Hoess:

Q. Hoess, what do you think would be the correct figure?

A. Moll, in my opinion, cannot possibly have any idea of the number of killing
in the dugouts where he was working and responsible. At any rate, they were
far, far too low — that is Moll's figure.

Q. What figure would you attribute to Moll’s responsibility?

A. It is impossible for me to quote the exact, or even a very rough figure, of the
number of corpses that were handled by Moll. As the use of the extermination
plant varied at all times, I do not know how many corpses I would have attrib¬
ute to Moll or how many to Mussfeld and the others.

Questions addressed to Otto Moll:

Q. Moll, how many women and children do you estimate were among the bod¬
ies that you handled?

A. Men and women were there in about equal numbers and the ratio of chil¬
dren to the other people was about one child in one hundred people brought
in. Sometimes transports arrived without children. I would also like to say that
I was not constantly working with these transports and of course, I cannot tell

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

what happened during my absence when I was not there, as I was away on
leave of absence, etc.

Q. We have heard that there were more children than that. Do you want
change your statement?

A. As I told you, it may be one child in a hundred or it may be more. I cannot
remember that exactly.

Questions addressed to Rudolf Hoess:

Q. What do you say to that Hoess?

A. My estimate is that one-third of all the victims would be men and two-thirds
women and children. I am not able to quote the exact ratio between women
and children, as that depended or/and varied greatly with the transports that
came in. However, I do remember that in the transports that came in from
Ukraine and Hungary the proportion of children was particularly high.

Q. In what year was that?

A. That was particularly in 1943, or it may have been early in the year 1944.
Questions addressed to Otto Moll:

Q. Moll, yesterday, you told us you had two installations and spoke of the fur¬
naces in which there were twelve large ovens and two additional with two ov¬
ens each, making a total of 28 separate burning units. How many human be¬
ings could you cremate at one time?

A. Two to three corpses could be burned in one furnace at one time. The fur¬
naces were built large enough for that.

Q. Did you operate at full capacity often?

A. I would like to emphasize that I had no responsibility at all with [sic; for]
the cremation in the stoves. What I was responsible for was the burning of the
corpses out in the open. Corporals Mussfeld and Foss were responsible for the
cremation in the furnaces.

Questions addressed to Rudolf Hoess:

Q. Is that right, Hoess?

A. First of all, Moll is slightly wrong in regard to the figures he quoted on the
furnaces. The two large units were made up of five double furnaces each and
the others of four double furnaces each. It is true that Mussfeld and Foss were
responsible for the furnace details, each had a large and a small one and Moll
was responsible for the burning of the bodies out in the open. Moll was re¬
sponsible for the disposition of the ashes, but later on I put Moll in charge of
the entire cremation. This was in the year 1944.

Q. Was that in the two months you were back at Auschwitz after you were
away?

A. Yes, that is when I was transferred back to Auschwitz.

Q. How often were the crematory details of prisoners exterminated?

A. As far as I can remember, it was twice before I left for the first time and
they were exterminated again after the action against the Hungarians was
completed.

Q. On whose orders were the prisoners exterminated?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. / received that order from Eichmann and he ordered in particular that the
furnace commandoes should be shot every three months, however, I failed to
comply with these orders as / did not think this was right.

Questions addressed to Otto Moll:

Q. You have said that your detail was never exterminated. What do you say
now?

A. No, that is not true. The work detail with which I worked was never exter¬
minated as long as I was there and as long as / worked. As regard the first
work detail I had for the excavation of mass graves, which / had to leave be¬
cause of my attack of typhus, they may have been exterminated when I re¬
turned to duty. The only thing that / know of is when / left, the last work detail,
I worked with, was still alive and that is, every member of the detail was alive
when / left. Sometime later when I left mutiny broke out in the camp. / know
that the entire guard company at the camp was used to suppress this mutiny. I
was not there, / was at Gleiwitz at the time. / do not know anything about this,
but Hoess can tell you that.

Q. Did you ever cremate any of your crematorium detail?

A. No.

Q. You mentioned that in the killing of the people in the gas chambers that it
took only one half minute. On what do you base that?

A. The gas was poured in thru an opening. About one half minute after the gas
was poured in, of course / am merely estimating this time as we never had a
stop-watch to clock it and we were not interested, at any rate, after one half
minute there were no more heavy sounds and no sounds at all that could be
heardfrom the gas chamber.

Q. What kind of sounds were heard before that?

A. The people wept and screeched.

Q. You observed all of this and heard the sounds?

A. Yes, / had to hear this because I was near there with my work detail. There
is nothing that I could do against this as I had no possibility of changing this
in any way.

Q. I'Ve are not interested in your opinions on that. You helped make the ar¬
rangements to put them in the gas chamber and burned them afterwards when
they were killed. The only thing you failed to do personally was pour in the
gas. It that it?

A. / was not responsible for the preparations as there were no special prepa¬
rations. The victims were led to the gas chamber by the duty officer and then
there was a work detail from the administrator, they told them to undress,
there was a further detail from the proper administration, which was respon¬
sible to collect all the valuables from the people. The whole thing happened
very correctly and in no instance was there any reason to interfere. / had no
right to interfere; always a doctor supervised the entire thing.

100

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. You recall yesterday, you said you were told that if any prisoners coming
off of new transports detailed for the death chamber would escape, you would
be court-martialed.

A. I was talking about the work detail, not about the transports.

Q. This came at the time you were testifying about your responsibilities at the
crematorium.

A. No, I only say as far as the work detail is concerned for which I was re¬
sponsible.

Q. We will not argue about it, as the notes show otherwise.

Questions addressed to Rudolf Hoess:

Q. What do you say of this detail of Moll?

A. Moll is not looking at this thing the right way. It actually is true and I have
explained this before, that the officer was responsible for the entire transport,
that is he was responsible to see that all were unloaded from each transport,
the doctors were responsible for the phase of work to see that the people were
killed and the bodies were disposed of. It was the responsibility of the subordi¬
nates, like Moll, to see that the people actually got into the gas chambers un¬
der the doctors and then to see that their bodies were burned. As far as the
subordinate leader was concerned, it was his responsibility to see that none
got away. In the last analysis I was responsible for the entire matter, that is for
the entire situation dealing with these transports.

Q. You have told us about some of the problems of making sure that everyone
was exterminated. For instance, that mothers hid their children under their
clothing after they undressed. Who was the person that gathered up the chil¬
dren, searched them out and put them into the gas chamber?

A. I think that this thing has been slightly misunderstood. The way this thing
happened is that mothers and babies with them, who would be wrapped in
blankets or cloth. The people had been told that they were going to take a
bath, they had no idea that they were going to be killed. It was not the idea, the
mothers did not want to take the children in with them to the bath and they left
them outside. Later on, the work detail from the administration, which was re¬
sponsible for them, would pick up the babies and put them in the gas chamber
then.

Q. Was it Moll’s responsibility’ to see that the children were disposed of?

A. Yes, but it would not mean on the other hand that Moll would have the par¬
ticular task of picking out the babies from under the blankets. I did not tell any
one of the officers or non-coms that they would be responsible for the extermi¬
nation. It was to be done and all of them carried out the orders smoothly and
properly.

Questions addressed to Otto Moll:

Q. You, Moll, said that your team respected you because you gave them a
hand. Was this job of picking up small children and gassing them a part of the
hand you loaned them?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

101

A. Possibly this was not expressed correctly by Hoess. I had nothing to do with
the searching of the clothes because that was not my duty. As / said, the offic¬
ers that had charge of the duty when the transport came in was responsible for
them until the moment they entered the gas chamber. / had nothing to do with
that, / never touched the babies or had anything to do with it.

Q. Did any of your men have anything to do with that? Anyone under you?

A. Yes, the prisoners were responsible for that. They had to clean up the room
after it had been cleared of people, they would then take the babies and throw
them into the gas chamber. There was a strict order against any SS men touch¬
ing any of this property.

Q. We are not talking about property. We are talking of people. Did you have
a special operation to kill these babies or were they thrown into the room
where people were still alive and all were gassed together?

A. Such a thing only happened rarely and I cannot remember a case where a
baby was found, but if they were found they were thrown into the gas chamber.
Q. How do you know?

A. Well, that was an order for the officer responsible for the transport and if
any children were found they were be disposed of like all the rest in the gas
chamber.

Q. You carried out your orders?

A. / emphasize again that / myself did not find any children, but if I did find
any, / would have to do it too.

Q. Did you shoot any babies in the neck, like you did the other victims?

A. Such a thing never happened.

Q. That is what you said about shooting other people this morning, then we
proved you are a liar. Are you sure you are telling the truth this time?

A. Yes, / am sure about it.

Q. You mentioned yesterday about the Hungarian Jews transports, saying they
were rounded up by Kaltenbrunners ’ boys. About whom were you speaking?

A. They were brought in by the Security Police and the Security Service all of
which were under the jurisdiction of Kaltenbrunner because he was in charge
of that.

Q. Moll, how do you know this?

A. That was a matter of general knowledge that men of the security police and
security service were under Kaltenbrunner. That is something that everyone
knew.

This is followed by three pages of specific questions about Kaltenbrunner,
with Moll leveling serious charges against him, then other questions about
Moll’s mission at Lublin. Hoss was asked whether he personally knew the de¬
fendants in the Nuremberg trial, which he denied. Subsequently, the interroga¬
tor returned to Auschwitz:

Q. [addressed to Moll] When did the first of the Hungarian transports of Jews
arrive at Auschwitz?

102

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. I cannot remember.

Q. Do you recall the big clean-up action of1944?

A. Yes, I remember the action of1944.

Q. When did the first transports begin to arrive?

A. If I have to make any statements about the month or time of the year they
arrived, I would have to lie as / do not know. When / was called from Gleiwitz
for this action, it had already been going on for some time.

Q. Well you have come around a little I think in the matter of straightening out
the record, but I don’t think you are coming thru completely.

A. I would like to request that if there are any further points you want to inter¬
rogate me on that I would like to have Hoess, my commandant, present and let
him tell the facts which I can admit or deny.

Q. You mean you are not a man, that you can't speak for yourself?

A. I will only do it in the presence of Hoess.

Q. We are not trying to trick you or do anything like that. We are just asking
you these questions and want answers about facts — that is simple, enough,
isn’t it?

A. / understand that. / want to mention something to you. The non-coms were
with the prisoners at all times, the prisoners knew their names and saw them.
The officers put in short appearances and did not get to know the prisoners.
The prisoners today are naturally accusing the non-coms about what action
was taken, not realizing that the officers are at least as guilty and know what
was done. They are not accusing the officers as they don’t know their names.

Q. You don 't know what we know about names, that is why we want to get
your story, to get it straight, but in order to do that, we don 7 have to tell you
things you already know, if you are honest.

A. / am honest and / am telling the truth, but / don 7 understand why I am ac¬
cused of things that I did not really do, for instance like the Lublin affair. ”

The whole story of Moll’s interrogation and his confrontation with Hoss
seems surreal. At that time, Moll had already been sentenced to death by the
Dachau Tribunal on December 13, 1945, so when he was interrogated for the
first time by Brookhart on April 15, 1946, he was awaiting his execution,
which occurred just over a month later on May 28, 1946. Why was he interro¬
gated? It is obvious that there was some correlation with Hoss’s interroga¬
tions, but the tone and content of Moll’s interrogations give the strange im¬
pression of a change of roles. After all, Moll was a mere SS Hauptscharfiihrer
(master sergeant), while Hoss was an Obersturmbannfiihrer (lieutenant colo¬
nel); although the American investigators regarded Moll as the most important
perpetrator of the alleged extermination at Auschwitz, he was still only exe¬
cuting Hoss’s orders. Hence, it would have made sense to interrogate Moll in
order to incriminate Hoss, but why did they interrogate Hoss in order to in¬
criminate a man who had already been sentenced to death? In addition, the in¬
vestigators’ accusatory approach also created insurmountable psychological

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

103

problems. Moll was not stupid, as Brookhart noted, and yet, after declaring
that he had had nothing to do with gassings, he also affirmed to have had no
idea what the two farmhouses were, and he moreover insisted on a confronta¬
tion with Hoss, evidently convinced that Hoss would confirm his affirmations.
If, as Broo kh art repeatedly reproved, he was a liar, how can we explain his su¬
icidal attitude? If he had to expect that his former commander would expose
him as a liar, why would he insist on that confrontation?

Apart from a few concessions, Moll tenaciously dismissed his interroga¬
tor’s accusations and constantly defended the veracity of his statements, thus
incurring heavy insults from his accusers:

“You have no conscience, You are scarcely human. ”

“Being a murderer is one thing, but being a liar is worse. ”

“You probably know you are going to burn in hell for what you have done, but
do you want to add your lies to it? ” etc.

Since he had already been sentenced to death, how do we explain his insist¬
ence on his innocence? At one point, Brookhart asked him point-blank:

“Why do you persist in this lie that you started to tell yesterday? What do you
hope to gain? ”

That was the correct question: what could a man on Death Row hope to gain
by lying?

The whole affair makes sense and can be explained if we take the opposite
perspective, namely that Moll was really innocent, he really did say more or
less the truth, and he tried to get Hoss to confirm his assertions, because he did
not know that his former commander had been forced to say everything what
the British torturers wanted him to say. When he realized this, it was too late,
and he lashed out against Hoss by saying:

“Then Hoess is trying to white-wash himself. He is the man who is lying. ”

In Part Two, I will return to what Moll actually knew about the alleged exter¬
minations and what Hoss accused him of.

Here we moreover recognize that the interrogator, in order to make Moll
“confess,” in addition to explicit threats, adopted a simplistic yet at the same
time aberrant criterion to determine the truth: the number of testimonies. Just
as the statements of former detainees had formed the thread to extort specific
“confessions” from Hoss, these testimonies and “confessions” were then as¬
sumed as indisputable truths that Moll was supposed to merely acknowledge.
Broo kh art told him so explicitly:

“It’s your word against many. ”

It did not cross Brookhart’s mind at all that these testimonies could be un¬
trustworthy, false, invented, exaggerated, and distorted, and that it was first
necessary to ascertain their veracity by documents and material evidence.
Brookhart, in fact, was not at all interested in the truth. His job, like that of his

104

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

British counterparts, was to produce “testimony” supporting the Allied atroci¬
ty propaganda in order to transform it into judicial “truth.”

11.5. The Interrogations of April 23 and 30, 1946

On the afternoon of April 23, 1946, Hoss was again interrogated by Sender
Jaari. 73 The questions concerned I.G. Farben executives and other matters ir¬
relevant for this study.

The interrogation of April 30, on the other hand, which was conducted by
the British Judge Advocate General Major G. Draper, is very relevant. It con¬
cerned “the statement of Otto Wilhelm Moll, dated April 29, 1946” which
Moll had obviously made to the British. Hoss read it, and his comments were
summarized as follows: 74

“1. Hoess first detailed Moll to work on exhuming mass graves in the winter of
1941 and Moll worked on this task for several months.

2. Approximately 105,000 to 106,000 bodies were exhumed and burned from
these mass graves in Auschwitz.

3. The order of the burning of these bodies came into two parts:

(a) A general order for the burning from the Reichsfuehrer himself.

(b) A special order from Obersturmbannfuehrer Eichmann from the Jews
Ampt. [Amt] 4. R.S.H.A.

4. The detail included the following classes:

(a) Russian P. W. s

(b) Ordinary prisoners from the K-Z

5. Proffessor [sic] Grawitz, the head S.S. Director for the Reich was there at
the burning on one occasion, but he never gave orders for the burning.

Q. There was some difficulty in finding one of the mass graves and Fritch
[Fritzsch] had to come out and point out to the examining body where it was.

A. It is quite possible that this grave was maybe one hundreds meters away in
some little forest and it was one of the earlier graves. That may have occa¬
sioned the difficulty, but in any case it was not far from the others.

(Hoess the accused subject read the following passage from Moll's statement:
‘For this reason he was forced to send me to Berkenau [sic]. At that time
Hoess told me that the gassings were in existence in Burknau [sic]. ’ Hoess
then made the following statement:

A. Moll knew before that of the existence of these gassing activities. During
1942-43 he knew exactly what was happening at that place. I had the new Un-
terfueherer [sic] who had experience in these matters of the burning of the

73 NARA, RG 238, M1270, OCCPAC. Testimony of Rudolf Hoess, taken atNumberg, Germany, on
23 April 1946 by Mr. Sender Jaari, 1500 - 1600. Also present: Mr. George Sackheim, Interpreter;
Piilani A. Ahuna, Court Reporter, pp. 1-11.

74 NARA, RG 238, M1270, OCCPAC. Testimony of Rudolf Hoess taken at Numberg, Germany, on
30 April 1945 [recte:1946\, 1730 to 1830, by Major G. Draper, Judge Advocate General, British
R.A.V. Also present: Theodore Lit, Interpreter and Alice Meehan, Court Reporter, pp. 1-10

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

105

graves and it was for that reason that I recall Moll and he had the job of tak¬
ing care of the Station 5.

Q. What do you call Station 5?

A. There we... [This is followed by two words; the first is deleted with a series
of xes, the second is overwritten with “bunker?” but at the end it reads “ries.”
The original text was: “There were four crematories”] in Burkenau [sic].

Q. And one broker? [sic].

A. It is this bunker that I designate as No 5.

Q. Was that bunker midway between two and three crematories?

A. Not between, but behind three and four somewhat removed from three and
four? [sic]

Q. Was Moll on your order in charge of Crematorium four and Station five in
1944?

A. At first only of No. 5 and later, in addition to that, in charge of three and
four, because occasionly [sic] the crematory at number four went out of order
and it had to be done in the open air and the burning had to be done in the
open air.

Q. Did Moll ever come on Crematoriums one and two at any time.

A No, he had only the task of getting rid of the ashes of all the crematoriums.

Q. Is it right that Oberscharfuehrer Voss and Oberscharfuehrer Mussfeldt
came on Crematoriums one and two respectively?

A. Yes.

Q. Is it right that Crematoriums one and two came under the political control
in the camp?

A. No, it was not that way. The political division had charge of all the crema¬
toriums, not only one or two, but all of them.

Q. Was Voss and Mussfeldt [sic] under the command of Moll?

A. All three had equal rankS 75 ^

Q. Was No. 3 Crematorium broken down in 1944 — was it capute? [German
kaputt],

A. The ovens were capute in 1944. They had to be rewalled — that is why peo¬
ple were burned in open graves.

Q. About how many people do you think Moll put thru his crematorium - No.
4?

A. Do you mean No. 5?

Q. No, No. 4.

A. No. 4 was used for open burnings.

Q. Did you gas in No. 4?

A. Yes.

Q. Moll was in charge of Number 5?

Peter Voss and Erich Muhsfeldt had the rank of SS Oberscharfiihrer, hence they had a lower rank
than Moll, who was SS Hauptscharfiihrer.

106

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. He was the leader of No. 5 — he was responsible for No. 4 only during the
time when open burnings were taking place at No. 4. At other times, Mussfelt
[sic] was in charge.

Q. When did Moll take over Station 5?

A. He was always in charge of No. 5.

Q. From when to when?

A. The first time in 1942-1943 and then there was a stop because there were
no burnings taking place there and then from the summer of 1944 until the
end.

Q. Did Moll actually supervise the gassing or burning or both?

A. He did not directly have anything to do with the gassing, as his own men
did that.

Q. No, his medical orderlies took care of that. The disinfectors they were
called - were they not?

A. Yes.

Q. Was Moll in the habit of shooting people in the gas chambers?

A. No, I have already described this. On occasions at the transports there were
sick people who could not be taken to the gas chambers and these people were
killed by Moll with small caliber guns.

Q. Do you mean carbines?

A. A small caliber carbines.

Q. How many people did Moll shoot in that way?

A. I cannot say.

Q. State approximately how many.

A. There were always ten to twelve people involved in one transport who were
killed in this manner, but that was not always the case. I cannot figure out
what the total was.

Q. Did he shoot them with his own hands?

A. Yes.

Q. Which had the biggest gassing capacity, Numbers one, two, three, four or
Station 5?

A. Station one and two were the same; three and four were the same, but Five
was an exception because one did not have the restrictions in number five and
one could keep constantly burning and gassing people in number five.

After addressing questions about Moll’s mission at Lublin in November 1943,
Hoss resumed his comments on Moll’s statements:

A. Paragraph 15 is correct to the extent that Moll did not have anything to do
with the actual sending of the gas into the chamber, but he was responsible for
the general activities in Crematorium five and later in Crematorium four. The
[illegible word, perhaps “1st”] sentence in paragraph 15 is not correct. It was
not right that he was told if a prisoner escaped, he, Moll, would be shot.

A. It is right that he would be held accountable?

A. Yes.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

107

(Hoess continues reading the statement and makes the following comment.)

A. Paragraph 16. Moll was responsible for a period of time.

Q. I want to know the months he worked at Station 5.

A. That was the years 1942, 1943 and 1944.

Q. When did he go to Crematorium No. 4 and when did he leave?

A. He was already in Crematorium 4 in 1943 for a period of time and also in
1944 until the end, sometime in autumn. He was there until that time.

With respect to Paragraph 17 — ‘The SS physicians appeared and ordered the
groups of prisoners to go into the crematorium to be gassed, ’ He had nothing
to do with it, there was always a doctor present, but the general supervision
was done by a S.S. Fuehrer. There was always an S.S. man present on twenty
four duty, who was responsible for the crematories, the gas and everything
that went with it.

Q. Would Moll himself ever have ordered prisoners into the gas chambers?

A. Yes, if the S.S. officer was not there as naturally he could not be at all
crematoriums at the same time and Moll took over.

Q. Did Moll make a little speech to the prisoners sometimes, saying they were
going to have a nice bath and their clothing would be disinfected?

A. That was told at all times to these people and it was also listed on placards
in various languages.

(Hoess continues reading).

A. Paragraph 19 — ‘Every day about three or four transports came to the gas
chambers. ’ As a rule two transports came per day.

Q. How many Hungarian Jews did you gas in your camp?

A. 400,000 [written in pen]

Q. That was known as the Hungarian Action? ’

A. Yes.

Q. How long did it take to gas 400,000 of the Hungarian Jews?

A. That was during the three months in 1944, June, July and August. Altogeth¬
er it might have been three and one half months in the summer of 1944.

Q. Is 600,000 correct? [written in pen]

A. 400,000 is correct. During the ‘Hungarian Action ’ there were three trans¬
ports per day and the most ever was five on one day and that was because of a
delay in the trains — that was the most I have ever heard of in any one day.

Q. What was the maximum number of Hungarian Jews ever gassed in one
day?

A. It could be eight, eight and one half or perhaps nine thousand. I don ’t know
exactly how many people could be handled from the five transports.

(Hoess continues to read)

A. I do not know exactly how many Gypsies were involved, as I was not pre¬
sent on that day.

Q. Were all the Gypsies in Berkenau [sic] gassed in one night?

A. Yes, those who were still there in Berkenau. More exact information can be
given by Obergruppenfuehrer Schwarzhuber Lagerfuehrer of Berkenau.

108

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q. Have you any idea of the number of Hungarian Gypsies? [sic] Was it hun¬
dreds or thousands?

A. If I can remember correctly, it might have been 3,500, but I do not recall
exactly. Originally there were 10,000 of them. Inasmuch as the R.S.H.A. IV
and V did not carry thru the job correctly, the original police branch office did
not cany thru the decrees properly and in the course of years a considerable
number of these Gypsies were released and were later transferred to other
camps. When finally the decree from [Office] V for gassing, there were three
and one half to four thousand prisoners still there, but I cannot state with cer¬
tainty that this figure is correct.

Paragraph 20 — Moll came from Auschwitz after the executions and then was
sent to Sachsenhausen to be placed at the disposal of the Camp Commandant
at Sachsenhausen.

Omitted here are questions and answers about the Sachsenhausen Camp.

Q. What date did you leave Auschwitz?

A. December 1, 1943.

Q. Did you remain in Oranienburgfrom that time until the end of the war?

A. Yes, up to the time when I had to go on official journeys and in the summer
of 1944 when I had to be in Auschwitz as the two commandants of the camp
were changed.

Q. Where you in Auschwitz when the Hungarian Jews were gassed?

A. Yes, it was at that time.

O. Under orders received from Himmler?

A. Yes.

Q. That is all. ”

12. Floss’s Statements to U.S. Interrogators for the I.G. Farben
Trial

In mid-May 1946, the Americans began to harass Hoss in order to obtain from
him incriminating statements against the leaders of German industry, especial¬
ly regarding the future I.G. Farben Trial (from August 1947 to July 1948). In
fact, the files related to this - affidavits and interrogation transcripts - have
the initials NI (Nazi Industrialists ), 76 which sets them apart from the other
documents introduced at trial. U.S. investigators were also very interested in
the company Tesch & Stabenow, although a military court had already staged
a speedy trial at Hamburg against this company (March 1-8, 1946).

Here too, I will only consider statements relating to Auschwitz, in particu¬
lar regarding the claimed extermination of the Jews, and on occasion other
noteworthy topics.

Documents of the NI series were also submitted during the Krupp Case (August 1947 - July
1948).

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

109

12.1. The Interrogations of May 14, 1946

The first interrogation of this series took place on the morning of May 14,
1946, and was conducted by the civil servant Alfred Booth. 77 It consists of 98
numbered questions and answers. I reproduce here only those that are relevant
to the subject of this study:

“I received the order from the Reichsfuehrer only in summer 1941; at that
point in time [March 1941] no such thing was going on. ” (p. 1)

“Q 12) What do you know about Globotschnigg [Globocnik] regarding his
friendship with Wolf?

A. / know absolutely nothing about the friendship Globotschnigg- Wolf. / know
Globotschnigg only from visit to Lublin, and Globotschnigg was once in
Auschwitz.

Q 13) At what point in time was that?

A. I can no longer tell the point in time, 1942-1943. At any rate, it was at that
point in time when the crematoria had already been finished. He inspected
them. ” (p. 2)

“Q 25) You used Cyklon [sic] B in Birkenau. Where did you procure it?

A. At the point in time when the gassings started, it was in stock in large quan¬
tities, that is to say, in stock for gassing vermin, for combatting vermin and so
on, in the buildings and barracks originating from the former Polish artillery
barracks. Two employees from the company Tesch & Stabenow, Hamburg,
were present who carried out these fumigations in the rooms. Comprehensive
safety measures were taken, and due to these safety measures, which were im¬
plemented each time, everything was cordoned off, and no one was allowed to
show up in the vicinity, and for two days no one was allowed to enter the
buildings. Everything was moreover aired out in order that no accidents oc¬
curred.

Q 26) Did these two men from Tesch & Stabenow help you later as well during
the gassing of humans\2]. These supplies that were there, they sure cannot
have been enough to carry out all vour later gassings?

A. No.

Q 27) Did you obtain these gas cans from the same company later as well,
which were manufactured by the company Tesch & Stabenow in Hamburg?

A. They were obtained only from this company.

Q 28) I show you a document with the number NI/032 and ask you whether the
label that you can see on that document is identical tot he labels which were
on the tin cans that you obtained from the Tesch & Stabenow company for the
purpose of gassing human beings?

A. Yesssir, the are the same.

Vernehmung des Rudolf Hoess vom 14. Mai 1946 10 Uhr 15 bis 11 Uhr 45 AM durch Mr. Alfred
H. Booth. Weitere Anwesende Frl. Geller, Stefanie. (Interrogation of Rudolf Hoess of 14 May
1946 1015 to 1145 AM by Mr. Alfred H. Booth. Others present: Miss Geller, Stefanie.) NI-036.
Subsequent page numbers from there.

110

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q 29) Did you also obtained gas from the company you can see on the second
label, ‘Degesch ’?

A. No. I only know the company Tesch & Stabenow, Hamburg. I must add
here, it happened in 1942, also in 1943, that the company in Hamburg could
not supply anything due to difficulties with the railway, and then trucks were
sent by us to Dessau, and we were told that this factory that manufactured the
gas was located in or near Dessau, and we picked up the gas there. Whether
that was the Degesch Company, I cannot say.

Q 30) You say it was picked up with trucks. Did you have camp inmates on
that truck?

A. No, only SS men.

Q 31) How were these trucks marked? Was there a way of recognizing these
trucks, that they came from a concentration camp?

A. The trucks merely had an SS number
Q 32) Not with a KZ/number?

A. No, as a tactical sign there was a triangle with the tip to the top, and inside
it was the initial of the camp, but only people privy to this could recognize this.
Other than that, the vehicles were not marked in any special way but looked
like any other vehicle.

Q 33) Tell me roughly what the quantitative ratio was of the supplies that you
found and were obtained and were needed for the disinfection of the camp fa¬
cilities, and the amount of gas routinely obtained later that you used for homi¬
cidal gassings and procured from Tesch & Stabenow?

A. I can no longer say how many gas cans were in stock at that point in time. It
was handled in such a way that for each transport four or five cans were used,
depending on the weather.

Q 34) How many people made up a transport?

A. One railway transport consisted roughly of2,000 people.

Q 35) Hence, you could gas 2,000 people with 4 cans?™

A. No, on average some 25% inmates fit for labor were extracted, so that some
1,500-1,600 people were gassed. Furthermore, one needed — it was different in
the crematoria, 7 in the large crematoria, in other rooms 5 cans. But it also
depended on the weather. If it was very cold and wet, 2-3 more cans had to be
used.

Q 36) What was the capacity of such a large room in the crematoria? It was
possible to get up to 3,000 people into them.

A. It depended on how the transporte arrived.

Q 37) I still haven’t received a plain answer from you regarding the quantita¬
tive ratio between the consumption for disinfections of facilities which were
originally carried out, and the gas which you routinely obtained from Tesch &
Stabenow for homicidal gassings.

The original German has here "Buchstaben” (letters) for “Biichsen” (cans).

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

111

A. I cannot say that anymore because I don’t know anymore how much gas
was in stock at that time.

F 38) Let’s talk clearly now. Do you know or do you have solid reason to be¬
lieve that the Tesch & Stabenow Company knew for what purpose the gas they
delivered was really used?

A. I cannot say that. Since 1941, it may also have beel^ since early 1942, the
gas was no longer ordered by the camp administration but rather by Dr.
Mugrowsky [Mrugowski]. He was the appointee of the Reichsfuehrers SS for
the entire area of hygiene, for the control of epidemics and drink water pro¬
curement and all the things in the camps, as well as the entire fixing of quotas.
The gas was subject to a quota for the entire SS due to the scarcity of raw ma¬
terials, and he [Mrugowski] then conveyed the quota allocated to Birkenau to
the Tesch & Stabenow Company.

Q 39) Do you want to say with this that the Tesch & Stabenow Company could
not have known what else the gas was being used for? Or do you think that it
must be assumed that the company knew that their gas was also being used on
humans?

A. My conclusion / can draw from this is that the company could have known
it only because Auschwitz constantly requested it, while it was delivered to the
other units of the SS troops only once or at intervals of half a year.

Q 40) Did the Tesch & Stabenow Company advise you each time through their
experts regarding the use of the gas in the crematoria?

A. No, I still know that from the early time 1940-41 that, when we could not
always have these two experts from the company, / merely sent so-called disin¬
fectors to the company in Hamburg, who were instructed there.

Q 41) Were they SS [men]?

A. These were always SS [men]. These were sent for instructions to Hamburg
not only from Auschwitz, but also from other camps.

Q 42) To follow this train of thought a little more, when people came for in¬
structions and subsequently gas deliveries went to Auschwitz on a weekly or
monthly basis, which in that amount was too much to be used for disinfections
or hygiene, would you say as well that the responsible executives of Tesch &
Stabenow perforce had to conclude from this that these gas quantities were
used for other purposes than that of disinfection?

A. / already stated earlier that they came across this due to the continual de¬
liveries.

Q 43) Can you state from memory which quantities were delivered every week
or month by the Tesch & Stabenow Company to the Auschwitz or Birkenau
Camp?

A. I cannot say that exactly, for those extermination operations did not happen
continuously but rather during certain periods of time. If I calculate it in this
way that at most 7 cans are calculated for one transport (a can equals 1 kg, so
7 kg), and that an average interval of 6 weeks is taken - this was the interval
of the deliveries — we get on average to two transport a day.

112

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Q 44) If you take a total of2,000,000 gassed [inmates], and consider that 7 or
6 cans were used for 1,500 [victims], then you certainly can establish that.
That is 2,000 x 6 cans or 10,000 cans or 10,000 kg for a period of three years.
A. Yes. " (pp. 4-7)

On the afternoon of May 14, 1946, Hoss was again interrogated. 79 He had
compiled a list of the German companies that had employed concentration
camp inmates, and the questions therefore centered around this issue. May 14,
1946 is also the date of a handwritten declaration by Hoss stating: 80

“I declare herewith under oath that, in the years 1942 to 1943 during my term
of office as cmdr. of the CC Auschwitz, 2 million Jews were gassed and ca. 1/2
million were made to perish in other ways.

Nbg May 14, 1946, Rudolf Hoss. ”

12.2. The interrogation of May 16, 1946

On May 16, the interrogator, Mr. Booth, submitted to Hoss the text of the in¬
terrogation of May 14 (NI-036) and asked him to make any corrections. 81 The
main topic is that of German industrial executives; it contains only a few hints
on Auschwitz:

“4. A. Regarding Wolf He was in Auschwitz in March 1941 together with the
Reichsfuehrer. The Reichsfuehrer was there again in 1942, but not Wolf. Wolf
was there only once. I want to correct that.

5. Q. Then we can strike this out. It is irrelevant.

A. Regarding the 3 million gassed people, should that be corrected or remain
as it is?

6. Q. I thought about that and have checked your earlier affidavit, according
to which 2 1/2 million were gassed and not 3 million. We can change that here
as well and can then also change the number of cans. That is 1/6 less, hence
10,000 cans.

A. Should I change that right here?

7. A. Yes. ” (p. 1)

79 Interrogation of Rudolf Hoess on 14 May 1946 15.00 hrs until 16.00 hrs. p.m. by Mr. Alfred H.
Booth. Further persons present. Fr. Stefanie Geller, Shorthand-writer. NI-037.

80 See Document 12; taken from: http://www.bad-bad.de/gesch/hoess_erkl2.htm.

According to the magazine Aufbau (“Das wichtigste Dokument der Sammlung”,” in: Aufbau,
March 13, 1992, p. 23), the original of this document was bequeathed to the United States Holo¬
caust Museum in Washington in early 1992 by Joseph Maier, who was an interpreter and docu¬
ment analyst for the United States at the Nuremberg trial. The statement was written by Hoss in
pencil; at the end, Maier added in his own writing: “The above was written and signed before me
at Nuremberg, Germany, on May 15, 1946. (signed) Joseph Maier, Chief, Analysis Section, Inter¬
rogating Division, Office of U.S. Chief of Counsel.”

81 Vemehmung des Rudolf Hoess vom 16. Mai 1946. 14.45 Uhr bis 16.30 Uhr PM durch Mr. Alfred
H. Booth. Weitere Anwesende Frl. Stefanie Geller, Stenographin. (Interrogation of Rudolf Hoess
of 16. Mai 1946. 14.45 hrs to 16.30 hrs PM by Mr. Alfred H. Booth. Others present: Miss Stefanie
Geller, Stenographer.) NI-038. The interrogation consists of 110 questions and answers; subse¬
quent page numbers from there.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

113

The question “Should I change that right here?” was evidently asked by
Booth, so it is the conclusion of the previous question. The question about the
“3 million gassed people” was made by Hoss.

Later on, the topic of visits to Auschwitz was touched upon:

“62. Q. So you want to say that such an inspection tour of Auschwitz had
made the friendliest impression on the visitors?

A. Yessir. ” (p. 6)

12.3. The Interrogations of May 17, 18 and 20, 1946

During the interrogation on May 16, Booth handed Hoss a list titled “Concen¬
tration Camp,” which listed a number of German concentration camps (p. 8).
Hoss was asked to complete the list by writing in the various columns the rel¬
evant data (number of detainees employed, the camp which had made them
available; the responsible executive of the respective company employing
them, the year since when detainees were employed). During the interrogation
of May 17, 82 Hoss returned the duly completed list, which for some unknown
reason became an attachment to Hoss’s affidavit of May 20, 1946, which I
will discuss later.

The interrogation of May 17 deals exclusively with this topic. Hoss was al¬
so read a long list of names of German industrial executives, and was asked
whether he knew them. The answers are contained in the just-mentioned affi¬
davit, where 32 names appear with Hoss’s comments.

The interrogations of May 18 (NI-040) and 20 83 also deal with German in¬
dustrialists.

The affidavit of May 20 was written by the U.S. investigators and submit¬
ted to Hoss for his signature, as Booth stated during the interrogation of the
same day: 84

"Before / put the affidavit before you which we have prepared for the time be¬
ing... ”

Just as the affidavit of April 5, 1946, this one was also compiled by summariz¬
ing Hoss’s answers to the questions that he had been asked in previous inter¬
rogations. The final part contains a list of 14 German companies that em¬
ployed concentration-camp inmates, and the “Concentration Camp” list men¬
tioned earlier.

12.4. The “Eidesstattliche Erklaerung” of May 20, 1946
I translate here the most important points of this affidavit: 85

82 Interrogation of Rudolf Hoess on 17th May, 1946. 10.00 hours to 11.30 hours AM by Mr. Alfred
H. Booth. Further persons present: Miss Stefanie Geller, Stenotypist. NI-039.

83 Interrogation of Rudolf Hoess on 20 May 1946 from 15:000 to 16:30 hours by Mr. Alfred H.
Booth. Also present Frl. Stefanie Geller, stenographer.

84 NI-041, p. 3 (p. 2 of the original).

114

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“2.1 commanded Auschwitz until December 1, 1943, and estimate that at least
2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there through gassing and
burning; at least another half a million died through starvation and disease,
which results in a total of some 3,000,000 dead. This number amounts to some
70 or 80% of all persons deported to Auschwitz as prisoners; the remaining
inmates were selected and used for slave labor in the factories in and around
the concentration camp. ” (p. 1)

“5. Mass executions by way of gassings started during the summer of 1941
and lasted until fall 1944. I personally supervised the executions at Auschwitz
until December 1, 1943. After I had erected the extermination building at
Auschwitz, / used Zyclon [sic] B, a crystallized [form of] hydrogen cyanide,
which was thrown into the death chambers through a small opening. The older
extermination camps Belsen [sic], Treblinka and Wolzek had used monoxide
gas. Of Zyclon B, between 5 and 7 cans with one kg [hydrogen cyanide] each
were needed for the gassing of 1,500 people; the number of cans varied de¬
pending on the size of the chamber and the weather, that is to say, during cold
and humid weather, 2 or 3 additional cans were needed.

When the gassing of human beings commenced, considerable quantities of the
gas — Zyclon B were still available in the Auschwitz Camp. The gas had been
used for the destruction of vermin in the buildings and barracks which were
located there originating from the Polish artillery camp. The gas came from
the Tesch & Stabenow Company, International Association for Pest Control,
Ltd., Hamburg. Two technical representatives of this company were in the
camp in order to carry out disinfections of the buildings, during which they
implemented careful safety measures in order to prevent accidents.

Zyclon B in cans was also obtained routinely and exclusively from Tesch &
Stabenow for the gassing of humans at Auschwitz. The cans had labelst hat
were identical with those shown to me as the upper document No. NI-032. In
1942 and 1943 it happened that Tesch & Stabenow could not deliver any gas
due to difficulties with the railway transport. We therefore sent our own truck
to Dessau in order to pick up the gas ourselves. We were told that the Tesch &
Stabenow Company was producing the poison in a factory near Dessau. Our
truck was manned by SS men. The trucks were marked with an SS number and
a tactical sign consisting of a triangle with the tip to the top, with the initial of
the respective concentration camp inside of it, in this case 'A. ' / think that only
insiders could recognize this sign as one belonging to a concentration camp.
Until the end of 1941 or early 1942, the camp administration ordered the gas
directly from Tesch & Stabenow. From then on, the gas was ordered for all SS
organizations and institutions by Dr. Mugrowsky [Mrugowski], the
Reichsfuehrer’s appointee for hygiene; he was also in charge of allocating
quotas. As such, Dr. Mugrowsky told Tesch & Stabenow about the delivery
quotas needed for the Birkenau extermination camp.

“Eidesstattliche Erklaerung” by R. Hoss of May 20, 1946. NI-034; subsequent page numbers from
there.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

115

I consider it certain that this company knew about the purpose of the Zyclon B
delivered by them, since they had to conclude this from the fact that the gas
was ordered routinely and in large quantities for Auschwitz, while the other
departments of the SS troops etc. either ordered it only once or in intervals of
6 months. I cannot remember the exact quantity of Zyclon B that we received
from Tesch & Stabenow, but I reckon that at least 10,000 cans, that is, 10,000
kg had been delivered by them within three years. This number results from
the calculation, based on a number of 2 1/2 million gassed people and the av¬
erage use of 6 cans for 1,500 people. ” (pp. 2f.)

“I definitely assume that Dr. Ambros as well as all the other visitors of the
camps at Auschwitz knew about the extermination of human life at Birkenau,
since there generally was talk about the extermination in the city of Auschwitz,
in the Buna factories and in the remaining vicinity of the Auschwitz Camp. ”
(PP- Hf.)

13. Hoss’s Statements to Psychologists at Nuremberg
13.1. Gustave Mark Gilbert

Gilbert had the official status of Prison Psychologist at the Nuremberg Trial.

In his Nuremberg Diary, he reports about his conversations with Hoss:

April 9. 1946: 86

“Colonel Hoess of Auschwitz

Hoess ’.v Cell: Examined Rudolf Hoess, commandant of the Auschwitz concen¬
tration camp, who has recently been captured, in anticipation of Kaltenbrun-
ner ’s defense.

After completing his test, we discuss briefly his activity as the commandant of
the Auschwitz concentration camp from May, 1940, to December, 1943, which
was the central extermination camp for Jews. He readily confirmed that ap¬
proximately 2 1/2 million Jew’s had been exterminated under his direction. The
exterminations began in the summer of 1941. In compliance with Goering’s
skepticism, I asked Hoess how it was technically possible to exterminate 2 1/2
million people. ‘Technically? ’ he asked. ‘That wasn’t so hard — it would not
have been hard to exterminate even greater numbers. ' In answer to my rather
naive questions as to how many people could be done away with in an hour,
etc., he explained that one must figure it on a daily 24-hours period. He ex¬
plained that there were actually 6 extermination chambers. The 2 big ones
could accommodate as many as 2,000 in each and the 4 smaller ones up to
1,500, making a total capacity of 10,000 a day. I tried to figure out how this
was done, but he corrected me. ‘No, you don’t figure it right. The killing itself
took the least time. You could dispose of2,000 heads in half hour, but it was the
burning that took all the time. The killing was easy; you didn’t even need guards

Gilbert 1947, pp. 249-251; subsequent page numbers from there.

116

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

to drive them into the chambers; they just went in expecting to take showers and,
instead of water, we turned on poison gas. The whole thing went very quickly. '
He related all this in a quiet, apathetic, matter-of-fact tone of voice.

I was interested in finding out how the order had actually been given and what
his reactions were. He related it as follows: 'In the summer of 1941, Himmler
called for me and explained: ‘The Fiihrer has ordered the Endlosung [final so¬
lution] of the Jewish question - and we have to cany out this task. For reasons
of transportation and isolation, I have picked Auschwitz for this. You now have
the hard job of carrying this out’. As a reason for this he said that it would
have to be done at this time, because if it was not done now, then the Jew
would later exterminate the German people — or words to that effect. For this
reason one had to ignore all human considerations and consider only the task
— or words to that effect. [...] Lunch Hour: Goering had said he wanted to
know how it was technically possible to murder 2 1/2 million Jews. I explained
it to him during the lunch hour, just as Hoess explained to me this morning:
each of the gas chambers could accommodate 1500 or 2000 persons; the kill¬
ing was easy but the burning of bodies took all the time and manpower. Goe¬
ring felt extremely uncomfortable at the realization that it was no longer pos¬
sible to deny the extent of the mass murders on the basis of the technical in¬
credibility of the numbers. He wanted to know just how the order was given. I
told him that Himmler had given it to him directly as a Fuhrerbefehl (order
from the Fiihrer) ’. ”

The next day Gilbert had another psychological interview with Hoss. In the
end, he expressed the following judgment (p. 260):

“In all of the discussions Hoess is quite matter-of-fact and apathetic, shows
some belated interest in the enormity of his crime, but gives the impression
that it never would have occurred to him if somebody hadn 7 asked him. There
is too much apathy to leave any suggestion of remorse and even the prospect
of hanging does not unduly distress him. One gets the general impression of a
man who is intellectually normal but with the schizoid apathy, insensitivity and
lack of empathy that could hardly be more extreme in a frank psychotic. ”

April 15, 1946:

Gilbert summarized Hoss’s deposition in the courtroom (p. 264):

“In the morning session, Colonel Hoess testified to the murder of 2 1/2 million
Jews under his direction at Auschwitz. It was all done at Himmler’s direct or¬
ders as a Fuhrerbefehl (Fiihrer's order) for the final solution of the Jewish
problem. (He gave his testimony in the same matter-of-fact, apathetic manner
as he had related to me in his cell). ”

On April 23, 1946, Hoss wrote a specific note to answer Goring’s doubts. The
document, probably written in pencil, is dated “Niimberg, 23. April 1946” and

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

117

has the following header: 87

“Goering wants to know: How is it technically possible in the first place to ex¬
terminate 2 1/2 million people within 3 1/2 years? ”

On the last page, however, the date given is April 24 (see Document 13). This
handwritten note was translated into English by Gilbert himself. 88 The docu¬
ment is illegible, so I reproduce here the translation of the German text as pub¬
lished in the German version of Gilbert’s diary (Gilbert 1962, pp. 448-450):

"The extermination process at Auschwitz-Birkenau unfolded as follows.

The transport trains with the Jews slated for extermination rolled right up to
the extermination facilities on railway tracks built especially for that purpose.
These trains had been announced ahead of time via telegraph by the dispatch¬
ing department of Ostubaf. Eichmann at the RSHA, and they had certain serial
numbers with letters — in order to prevent a confusion with other inmate trans¬
ports. — Each telegram regarding these transporte had the annotation: ‘ac¬
cording to guidelines given and are to be subjected to special treatment. ’
These trains were enclosed freight cars and contained on average some 2,000
people. After arrival of the trains at the ramp mentioned above, the accompa¬
nying railway personnel and the accompanying guard details — members of the
security and regular police — had to leave the area. Only the head of the
transport handing it over stayed around until the transport had been surren¬
dered to the camp leader on duty. After unloading and determining the
strength of the transport — lists with names were not compiled — all persons
had to file by 2 SS physicians on duty, and by so doing, those fit for work were
separated from those unfit for work; on average, some 25 percent were con¬
sidered fit for work. Those fit for work walked immediately into the camp for
undressing and registration. All the luggage was left lying on the ramp in or¬
der to be brought to the property storage area after those unfit for work had
also been removed. Those unfit for work were divided into men and women
with children, and walked to the next unoccupied extermination facility. Those
unable to walk and women with little children were brought there by truck.
Once they had arrived there, they had to get naked in rooms giving the impres¬
sion that they were debusing facilities. The permanent labor unit of inmates
working at those facilities and who were also lodged there, did not get in
touch with other camp inmates; they helped with the undressing and encour¬
aged those who hesitated to hurry up, so that the others wouldn ’t have to wait
so long. They were also told to pay attention to where they put their belong¬
ings, in order that they might find it straight away after having taken the bath.
All this was done to dispell any emerging doubts. After undressing, they
walked into the next room, the gas chamber itself. This was equipped like a
bath, i.e., everywhere were shower heads, pipes and water drains, etc. As soon

87 This document was handed over by Gilbert to the court during the Jerusalem trial against Adolf
Eichmann, where it received the reference number T/l 170.

YVA, 0.23-40. See Document 14.

118

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

as the entire transport was inside the chamber, the doors were closed, and at
the same time, the gas was thrown in from the top through special openings;
this was Cyclon B ’, a crystal-like hydrogen cyanide which evaporated instant¬
ly, meaning that it became effective instantly on contact with oxygen. Already
with their next breath the people were stunned, and depending on the weather
and the number of those locked up, the killing took some 3-15 minutes. After
that, no one moved anymore. 30 minutes after the gas had been thrown in, the
chambers were opened, and the removal of the corpses to the cremation devic¬
es commenced. In all these years, I have not heard of a single case where any¬
one came alive out of the chambers. When taking them out, the women’s hair
was cut, and inmate dentists employed at the unit removed existing gold teeth
and rings. There were 5 facilities at Birkenau. 2 large crematoria with a ca¬
pacity of2,000 people each within 24 hours, meaning that up to 2,500 people
could be killed in the gas room, [and] within 24 hours, at most 2,000 could be
cremated in 5 double furnaces (heated with coke). 2 smaller facilities with 4
larger double furnaces could eradicate some 1,500 people. Furthermore an
open-air facility — that is, an old farmhouse had been made gap-tight as a gas
room, and could hold some 1,500 people at once. Cremation was carried out
in open pits with wood, and this was more or less unlimited; according to my
calculation, one could cremate up to 8,000 people in this way within 24 hours.
— It was also possible to exterminate and eradicate up to 10,000 people within
24 hours in the facility mentioned above. To my knowledge, this number was
reached only once in 1944, when on one day five transports arrived at the
same time due to delayed trains. — The ashes from the cremations were re¬
duced to dust and poured into the Vistula at a remote location, and were car¬
ried away by the currents.

Assuming a total of 2 1/2 million, who according to Eichmann were transport¬
ed to Auschwitz to be exterminated, that would mean that - on average — 2
transports daily with a total of 4,000 people — 25% of them fit for work —
hence 3,000 people were exterminated [every day]. Considering the gaps be¬
tween the individual operations of altogether 9 months, 27 months remain at
90,000 people each = 2,430,000 people.

This is the calculation of technical possibility. I have to stick to Eichmann’s
numbers, who was the only SS leader who according to orders from the RFSS
[Himmler] was allowed to record data about these extermination operations.
All other departments which were somehow involved had to immediately de¬
stroy all records. Eichmann gave me that number when he was ordered to re¬
port to the RFSS in April 1945.1 had no records at all. To my best knowledge,
this number appears to be too high, however. If I add together the numbers of
the large mass operations which I can still remember and add a percentage of
error margin, I arrive at a maximum of 1 1/2 million from early 1941 until the
end of 1944. But that is my estimate which I cannot substantiate.

Nrbg., April 24, 1946, Rudolf Hoss

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

119

Hungary

400,000

Slovakia

90,000

Greece

65,000

Holland

90,000

France

110,000

Belgium

20,000

Gen. Gouvern. + Upper Silesia

250,000

Germany & Theresienstadt

100,000

1,125,000. ”

13.2. Leon Goldensohn

Major Leon Goldensohn, a U.S. Anny psychiatrist, was sent to Nuremberg in
early January 1946 and remained there until July. He was responsible for the
mental health of the defendants in Germany and had frequent conversations
with them, the most important of which were published in 2005 by Robert
Gellately. 89 Goldensohn’s handwritten notebooks were typed up. The vicissi¬
tudes through which these typed documents, written in 1946, ended up in the
hands of the publisher in 1994 (p. xxxi) are irrelevant to this study, as it is as¬
sumed that the annotations published in the book are authentic. Yet still, this
book is not based on the original handwritten notebooks, but on the “original
typed interviews and original carbon copies” {ibid.).

The first entry concerning Hoss dates back to April 8, 1946. I quote the
most important sections (pp. 295f.):

“A forty-six-year-old man, Rudolf Hoess, in the C wing in isolation. He sat
with both feet in a tub of cold water, his hands clasped in his lap, rubbing
them together. He said he had had frostbite for two weeks and that soaking his
feet in the cold water relieved the aching.

/ remarked that it hadn’t been cold here, how did they get frostbite? 7 was in
Schleswig-Holstein, barefooted in a cell. When the British captured me I was
naked and they just threw> a couple of blankets around me and took me to pris¬
on. They didn’t give me any shoes or socks. ’ I asked when he was arrested.
‘On March 11, 1946. ’ Tell me about it, I said. 7 was hiding after I had been
discharged under a false name as a navy sailor. / worked on a farm in Schles¬
wig-Holstein. ' I asked how the authorities found out who he was. He said, ‘As
far as / know, they questioned my family, who lives in Schleswig, and my old¬
est son, age sixteen, must have given them my address. ’.

Why didn 7 you give yourself up before? / queried. 7 thought I could get away
with it. ’ [...]

7 was commandant at Auschwitz for four years, from May 1940 until the first
of December, 1943. ’ I asked how many people were executed at Auschwitz

Goldensohn 2005; subsequent page number from there.

120

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

during his time. ‘The exact number cannot be determined. I estimate about 2.5
million Jews.' Only Jews? ‘Yes.’ Women and children as well? ‘Yes ’.

What do you think of it? Hoess looked blank and apathetic. I repeated my
question and asked whether he approved of what went on at Auschwitz. ‘I had
my personal orders from Himmler. ’ Did you ever protest? 7 couldn 't do that.
The reasons Himmler gave me I had to accept. ' In other words, you think it
was justified to kill 2.5 million men, women, and children? ‘Not justified — but
Himmler told me that if the Jews were not exterminated at that time, then the
German people would be exterminated for all time by the Jews. ’ How could
the Jews exterminate the Germans? 7 don’t know, that is what Himmler said.
Himmler didn ’t explain. ’ Don’t you have a mind or opinion of your own? ‘Yes,
but when Himmler told us something, it was so correct and natural we just
blindly obeyed it. ’”

The next day, April 9, Goldensohn visited Hoss again (pp. 298-307):

“Hoess was sitting on his bed when I entered with Mr. Triest, the interpreter.
He came to stiff attention and kept standing until I invited him to sit down. He
said that his aching feet were somewaht relieved but that he still occasionally
put them in a tub of cold water for temporary relief.

7 am going to court tomorrow or the next day, I was told this morning. I am
going to be a witness for Kaltenbrunner. ’ He has a somber but apprehensive
and vacuous facial expression. He said: ‘Did I gave you a report of the actual
proceedings?’ I told him to tell me whatever came to his mind. He said:
‘Auschwitz was originally thought of as a quarantine camp for Poles from the
General Government. Poles were originally scheduled to come to a concentra¬
tion camp in the Reich itself, and Auschwitz was originally meant to be only a
transient quarantine station where prisoners would be held for a few weeks to
determine whether they had illnesses which were contagious, such as typhus
or fleck fever. ’

‘The actual spot where the camp was is near a little city near Auschwitz. Orig¬
inally it was the site of artillery barracks for the Polish army. This was a hard
job because all of the surrounding territory was often flooded and quite run¬
down. ”

This is followed by a description of the initial stages of the Auschwitz Camp.

After that, Hoss retells the story of how the extermination of the Jews at

Auschwitz was allegedly ordered and implemented:

“‘In the summer of 1941, I was called to Berlin to see Himmler. I was given
the order to erect extermination camps. I can almost give you Himmler’s actu¬
al words, which were to the effect: ‘The Fiihrer had ordered the final solution
to the Jewish problem. Those of us in the SS must execute these plans. This is a
hard job, but if the act is not carried out at once, instead of us exterminating
the Jews, the Jews will exterminate the Germans at a later date. ’

‘That was Himmler’s explanation. Then he explained to me why he selected
Auschwitz. There were extermination camps already in the East but they were

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

121

incapable of carrying out a large-scale action of extermination. Himmler
could not give me the exact number, but he said that at the proper time Eich-
mann would get in touch with me and tell me more about it. He would keep me
informed about incoming transports and like matters.

7 was ordered by Himmler to submit precise plans as to my ideas on how the
extermination program should be executed in Auschwitz. / was supposed to in¬
spect a camp in the East, namely Treblinka, and to learn from the mistakes
committed there.

‘A few weeks later, Eichmann visited me in Auschwitz and told me that the first
transports from the General Government and Slovakia were to be expected.
He added that this action should not be delayed in any way so that no tech¬
nical difficulties would arise and that the schedules of transports should be
maintained at all costs.

‘Meanwhile, / had inspected the extermination camp of Treblinka in the Gen¬
eral Government, which was located on the Bug River. Treblinka was a few
barracks and a railroad line side track, which had formerly been a sand quar¬
ry. I inspected the extermination chambers there. These chambers were built of
wood and cement; each was about the size of this cell (approximately eight
feet by eleven feet [ca. 2.4 m x 3.4 m = 8.2 m 2 ]), but the ceilings were lower
than in this cell. Along the side of the extermination chambers, motors from
old tanks or trucks were set up, and the gases of the motors, the exhaust, was
directed into the cells, and this is how the people were exterminated. ’

How many people at a time? 7 couldn’t tell you exactly but / estimated that in
each chamber, which was about the size of this cell, but not as high, about two
hundred people were shoved in at one time — pressed into the cell very close
together.'

The authorities at Treblinka would leave the people to be exterminated in
these chambers with the motors running for one hour after they had started the
motors, and then they opened the doors again. By that time all were dead. I
don 7 know how long it really took for the gas to kill them. ' How did they re¬
move the bodies? ‘They were removed by other internees. At first they were
placed in mass graves in the sand quarries, and later when / inspected they
had just started burning the corpses in open sand quarries or ditches and had
begun to excavate the mass graves and burn those that had been buried. ’ How
long did you stay in Treblinka? ‘Only a few hours, then / went back to Ausch¬
witz.

‘Then the first transports arrived in Auschwitz.

122

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

7 had two old farmhouses somewhat removed from the camp which I had con¬
verted into gas chambers. I had the walls between the rooms removed and the
outer walls cemented to make them leakproof. The first transport that arrived
from the General Government was brought there. They were killed with Zyklon
B gas. ’

How many people at a time were exterminated in each farmhouse? Hoess
stared at the floor and thought for several moments. He shifted his eyes from
me to the floor to Mr. Triest, and finally after about thirty’ seconds of silence,
said: ‘In each farmhouse eighteen hundred to two thousand persons could be
gassed at one time. The two farmhouses were separated by a distance of six
hundred to eight hundred meters. They were completely closed off from the
outside by woods andfences. ’

How often were these buildings used? ‘Well, it was like this. These transports
didn’t come daily; sometimes two or three trains arrived on a single day, every
train containing two thousand people, but there were periods when no trans¬
ports arrived for three to six weeks.' How long were these people kept at
Auschwitz? ‘No time at all. A side track went to Birkenau and unloaded, and
there the selection was made. Those who were able to work were sifted from
those unable to work. ’ What criteria for selection were used? ‘Well, we had
two SS doctors and they sat at tables, and the people from the transports got
off the train and walked by these doctors. These people were fully clothed;
they just walked by and the doctors judged by their looks, age, and strength. ’
Out of the transport of two thousand, approximately how many were saved for
work? ‘In all of those years, I figured an average of twenty to thirty percent of
people were able to work. ’ And then what happened? ‘Those not able to work
were marched to the farmhouses. These were a good kilometer from the side
track. There they were made to undress. At first they had to undress in the
open, where we had erected walls made of straw and branches of trees that
kept them from onlookers. After a while we built barracks. We had big signs,
all of which read ‘To Disinfection ’ or ‘Baths ’. That was in order to give the
people the impression that they would merely receive a bath or be disinfected,
in order not to have any technical difficulty in the extermination process.

‘And the internees whom we used as interpreters and general helpers in those
stations instructed the people that they should take care of their clothing when
they laid it on the ground in neat piles so that they should be able to find their
clothes when they came out of the bath or disinfecting room. These internees
helped quiet all of the people by answering their questions in a reassuring
manner and telling them they would only be bathed in those houses.

‘Then the people were brought to the chambers and the internees who accom¬
panied them went along with the people into the extermination chambers so
that the people would be quiet, since they saw the attendants go inside them¬
selves. It was so done that all of the chambers were filled up at the same time.
At the last moment, when the chambers were filled, the internees who worked
for us slipped out, the doors were jammed shut, and the Zyklon B gas was

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

123

thrown through small openings. ’ Was there any panic among the people prior
to their murder?

‘Yes, sometimes, but we worked it smoothly, more smoothly as time went on.
The men were always exterminated in a separate chamber, and the women and
children together in the same chamber. ’ At what age, for example, did you dis¬
tinguish between a child and a grown-up, that is, between a boy and a man? 7
can 't say. We judged by the looks of the boys — you know, some are grown-up
at fifteen years, others at seventeen. We judged mainly by stature. ’

Do you mean that all of those executed were unfit to work? ‘Not exactly, but
one can assume that the majority of those exterminated were not able to work. ’
Why? ‘Well, the doctors who checked on the people fully clothed when they
filed out of the transports also were present when the people whom they had
selected for extermination were undressed, and they often remarked that their
quick selection at the railroad siding was accurate because with few excep¬
tions the people who had been selected for extermination were not capable of
much work. / don’t understand. You say that the doctors who made the selec¬
tions sat at the railroad siding and the people filed past fully clothed? ‘Yes,
but what / mean is that the doctors said such things later, when they were pre¬
sent at the undressing, right next to the gas chambers, out in the open. They
would say that their selection generally had been accurate. ’

How long did it take for Zyklon B to work? ‘After all of the obseiwations done
all of those years, / feel that it depended upon the weather, the wind, the tem¬
perature; and as a matter of fact, the effectiveness of the gas itself was not al¬
ways the same. Usually it took three to fifteen minutes to extinguish all these
people, that is, for no sign of life anymore. In the farmhouses we had no peek
holes so that sometimes when we opened the doors after a considerable period
of time had elapsed, there were still some signs of life. Later on, in the newly
erected crematory [sic] and gas chambers, which I designed, we had peek
holes so that we could ascertain when these people were all dead.

‘After a half hour, the farmhouse doors were opened. There were two doors,
one on each end, and the room was aired. The workers were equipped with
gas masks and they dragged the corpses out of the rooms and placed them at
first in large mass graves.

7 believed that crematoriums could be erected fast and so wanted to burn the
corpses [buried] in the mass graves in the crematory, but when / saw that the
crematory [sic] could not be erected fast enough to keep up with the ever-
increasing numbers exterminated, we started to burn the corpses in open
ditches like in Treblinka. A layer of wood, then a layer of corpses, another lay¬
er of corpses [sic; probably: wood], et cetera.

To start the fire we used a bundle of straw dipped in gasoline. The fire was
usually started with about five layers of wood and five layers of corpses. When
the fire was going strong, the fresh corpses which came from the gas chambers
could merely be thrown on the fire and would burn by themselves.

124

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

‘In 1942 the great crematoriums were completed and the whole process was
then done in the new buildings. New railroad tracks led to the crematorium.
The people were selected as before, with the only exception that the ones una¬
ble to work went to the crematory instead of being marched to the farmhouses.
It was a large, modern building; there were undressing rooms and gas cham¬
bers underground, and crematory above ground, but all in the same building.
There were four gas chambers underground; two large ones each accommo¬
dating two thousand people and two smaller ones each accommodating sixteen
hundred people. The gas chambers were built like a shower installation, with
shower outlets, water pipes, a few plumbing fixtures, and a modern electrical
ventilation system so that after the gassing, the room could be aired [out] by
means of the electrical ventilation apparatus. The corpses were brought by el¬
evators to the crematory above. There were five double stoves.

‘Burning two thousand people took about twenty-four hours in the five stoves.
Usually we could manage to cremate only about seventeen hundred to eight¬
een hundred. We were thus always behind in our cremating because as you
can see it was much easier to exterminate by gas than to cremate, which took
so much more time and labor.

‘When the act was in progress, two or three transports came daily, each with
about two thousand people. Those were the times that were hardest because
we had to exterminate them at once and the facilities for burning even with the
new crematories could not keep up with the extermination. ’

How many were killed in this way? 7 can’t give the exact number. In the first
place, all files on these people had been destroyed. There was no record or
names, and even numbers were only roughly estimated. In about 1945 Eich-
mann had to submit a report to Himmler, because Eichmann was the only one
who had to save the numbers for Himmler. Eichmann told me before he went
to Himmler that in Auschwitz alone 2.5 million people were killed by gassing.
It is quite impossible to give an exact figure. ' Do you think the figure might
have been higher, perhaps as high as 3 million or 4 million? ‘No, I think 2.5
million is too high, but I have no proof. None of the people exterminated were
registered, only those who went to work were registered in the camp. ’ Were
those who were selected to work, instead of being killed, exterminated later if
they were Jews? ‘No, only there were some who died a natural death, like an
illness, for example. ’ Did many die of sickness? ‘Yes, there were constant epi¬
demics of typhus as a result of the crowded camps and the lack of sanitary in¬
stallations, which could not be built as fast as people came in.

7 reckon in all of those years in all of the epidemics, approximately half a mil¬
lion people died as a result of sickness. ’

How many people went through Auschwitz? ‘That is impossible to say. I have
no idea how many went through the camp. I know that in the years 1943-44 we
had 144,000 internees in the camp who worked there. Most of the newly ar¬
rived people able to work were transported away from Auschwitz, and I don’t
know what happened to them. ’

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

125

I have heard that the gold was taken out of the teeth of those exterminated.
‘Yes, after the bodies were taken from the gas chambers, since early in 1942,
orders were received from higher headquarters to remove all gold from the
teeth and send it to the Finance Department. From there it was sent to the
treasurer, I believe. ’ Who did this removal of gold from the teeth of the dead?
‘Internees, mostly dentists who worked there. We usually saved doctors, den¬
tists, and nurses from the gas chambers in order to use them in technical posi¬
tions. ’ How many Germans were there in Auschwitz on your staff? ‘Do you
mean including the guards? ’ Yes. ‘Well, in 1943, about December, when I left,
there were 3,500 guards and about 500 men on the administrative staff, and
that included those who supervised the agriculture section, the testing labora¬
tories, the supervision of the extermination chambers, crematories, et cetera. ’
How could the Germans not know of these affairs if at Auschwitz alone 3,500
Germans worked at it? 7 can’t answer that because there is no doubt that it
was widely known among many people, but certain precautions were taken.
For instance, it was not carried in the newspapers; we used the same train
crews for the transportation; and almost everyone who worked in Auschwitz
had to make a sworn statement not to talk. ’ Can you explain more about these
3,500 Germans who worked at Auschwitz? ‘Until 1939, that is until the out¬
break of the war, concentration camps were staffed by the SS Death's Heads
units. When war broke out, Eichmann [recte: Glucks], who was inspector of
concentration camps, took them in one division for combat. The guards were
replaced by older people from the General SS. In the later years, that is from
1941 on, we used many so-called ethnic Germans, from Hungary, Galicia, for
example, who had to serve there.

‘In 1943 and 1944 the large units of the army, navy, and air corps were trans¬
ferred to the SS to supervise work in war factories, armament production, and
the like. For example, in an armament factory that worked for the navy and
that used internees for labor — in such a case, the navy had to supply its own
guard personnel. The same was true for the army and air force, because there
were not enough guard units in the SS. The army, navy, or air force personnel
that were used as guards later on were transferred to the SS. ’

What happened to you after December 1943, when you left Auschwitz? 7 went
to the headquarters in Oranienburg to work for the inspector of concentration
camps. Auschwitz had become so big that it had to be divided into three
camps, called Auschwitz 1, 2 and 3. Or they could be labelled ‘Auschwitz’ it¬
self; ‘Birkenau, ’ which would be Auschwitz 2, and ‘Monowitz, ’ which would
be Auschwitz 3. In Monowitz were all of the work labor camps that belonged
to Auschwitz. The figure 140,000 which I gave you before takes into consid¬
eration only those who worked in Auschwitz and not the transient internees,
who were either liquidated or sent on to other places.

From the time you left Auschwitz until the end of the war, how many people
were exterminated there? ‘The figure 2.5 million takes care of 1944’. Were
there any exterminated in 1945? ‘No, at the end of 1944 the whole thing

126

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

stopped. It was forbidden by Himmler.' What happened to the transports that
arrived in 1945? ‘Hardly any transports arrived in 1945, and the only people
who came were those able to work. ’ Why did the exterminations stop? Was it
because there were no more Jews to exterminate? ‘In November 1944 I was
with Eichmann in Budapest and he told me that there were negotiations going
between Himmler and representatives of the Jews in Switzerland through vari¬
ous middlemen and that from then on exterminations would have to stop im¬
mediately. ’

When do you figure the last exterminations occurred? Hoess thinks and rubs
his hand together. He finally says: ‘I am not sure, but I think in October
1944.'"

This is followed by personal observations, some of which are noteworthy.

Hoss reiterated that his wife was aware of the alleged exterminations (p. 308):
‘“In 1942 she heard a remark made by party district administrator Bracht of
Upper Silesia, who referred to the extermination program, and then she be¬
lieved it. After that she asked me about it and I told her. ’ What was her reac¬
tion? ‘She was very upset and thought it cruel and terrible. I explained it to
her the same way Himmler explained it to me. Because of this explanation she
was satisfied and we didn 't talk about it anymore. ”

Hoss’s mental attitude, to which I will return later, is clearly revealed by this

exchange (ibid.):

‘‘Do you feel guilty, or merely a soldier who had done his duty? ‘Up until the
capitulation of Germany I believed I carried out orders correctly and acted in
the right manner. But after the capitulation, when I read newspaper reports of
the trials et cetera, I came to the conclusion that the necessity for extermina¬
tion of the Jews was not as they told me — now I am guilty, as are all of the
others, and I have to take the consequences. ’ What do you think your punish¬
ment should be? ‘To be hanged. ’ Do you really, or do you think that there are
others more guilty than you? ‘There are others more guilty than me, particu¬
larly those who gave me the orders, which were wrong. But as I saw it in the
trial in Belsen where SS men worked under the same orders as I had, I will
have to face the same punishment.

Goldensohn then asked the former commander of Auschwitz a fundamental

question that for some strange reason no interrogator had ever asked (p. 309):
‘‘Who invented gas chambers? ‘They developed out of the situation. The courts
brought in a lot of people who had to be shot. I always objected to having to
use the same men for firing squadrons over and over again. During that peri¬
od one day my camp leader, Karl Fritzsch, came to me and asked me whether I
could try to execute people with Zyklon B gas. Until that time Zyklon B was
used only to disinfect barracks which were full of insects, fleas, et cetera. I
tried it out on some people sentenced to death in the cell prison and that is

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

127

how it developed. I didn’t want any more shootings, so we used gas chambers
instead. ’

How many concentration camps in Germany or outside of it had gas cham¬
bers? ‘Mauthausen, Dachau, Auschwitz, and in the east, Treblinka, in Russia,
they used gas wagons.' What about Majdanek? ‘They had temporary gas
chambers but that camp came under the Security Police — the Einsatzkomman-
do and Security Police. In Lublin there was a concentration camp which came
under our inspection and supervision but it was not an extermination camp.
Majdanek was near the city of Lublin and was an extermination camp under
the direction of Lieutenant General Globocnik, who was the SS and political
leader of Lublin. ’. ”

The notes penned on April 11, 1946 (pp. 309-316) relate to Hoss’s biography

and are of little relevance in the context of this present study.

128

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

III. Extradition to Poland and the Warsaw Hoss Trial

1. The Interrogations

Hoss was interrogated by Polish officials on numerous occasions: September
28; November 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15; and on January 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 29, 30, 31;
and March 12, 1947.

On May 25, 1946, after having completed his task at Nuremberg, Hoss was
extradited to Poland. In February 1947, he retold these events in detail
(Broszat, pp. 150-152; Saija, pp. 160f.):

“On May 25, on my wedding anniversary of all things, I was driven to the air¬
port together with v. Burgsdorff and Bihler [Biihler] and was handed over to
Polish officers. With a U.S. aircraft we flew to Warsaw via Berlin. Although
we were treated very courteously en route, I feared the worst when thinking
about the experiences in the British zone [of occupation] and the hints about
the treatment in the East. The facial expressions and gestures of the spectators
at the airport were not exactly reassuring either. Inside the prison, several of¬
ficials came up to me right away showing me their tattooed inmate numbers of
Auschwitz. I couldn't understand them — but these were certainly not pious
wishes with which they greated me. But I wasn’t beaten. The detention was
very strict and totally isolated. I was frequently gaped at there. I spent nine
weeks there. They became rather difficult, because I had no distraction at all,
neither did I have anything to read nor was I allowed to write.

On July 30, I was brought to Krakow together with seven other Germans. At
the railway station, we had to wait for quite a while for the car. During that
time, quite a crowd gathered who insulted us fiercly. Goth was recognized
right away. Had the car not arrived after a while, we would have been severe¬
ly pelted with stones. During the first week, the detention was rather bearable,
but suddenly the guards behaved as if they had been transformed. From their
attitude and talking, which I could not understand but interpreted, I gathered
that they wanted to ‘shellac ’ me. I always got the smallest piece of bread and
barely a ladle of thin soup. [...]

If the prosecution had not intervened, they would have worn me down — not
merely physically but primarily mentally. They soon had me there. It wasn't
whimpy hysteria — back then I was soon finished. [...] I have the say frankly
that I never would have expected to be treated so decently and accommodat¬
ingly in Polish custody, as has been the case ever since the prosecution had in¬
tervened. ’’

In Krakow, Hoss wrote his famous Aufzeichmmgen at the Montelupi Prison
between November 1946 and February 1947. Here the interrogations resumed
at the end of September. They were conducted in German in the presence of
an interpreter. To be accurate, these were actually not proper interrogations

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

129

with questions and answers, but mere statements on topics in a chronological
order as determined by the interrogators. The protocols are in Polish. The ver¬
sions included in the files of the Hoss Trial are not the originals, but certified
copies.

The first “ protokol” dates back to September 28, 1946. It is a text of six
pages of autobiographical character, which ends with Hoss’s appointment as
commander of the Auschwitz camp. At the end of it, the following certifica¬
tion (in German) by the interrogators appears: 90

“The above protocol has been completely translated into German for me. The
record reflects my statements given in the German language both by content
and by meaning. As proof for this, I sign this protocol myself. ”

This formula is repeated at the end of all the minutes.

On October 1, Hoss wrote a text titled “ Lagerordnung fiir die Konzentra-
tionslager ” (Camp regulations for the concentration camps) containing the fol¬
lowing preface:

“These camp regulations were written in 1936 and were meant to be a draft,
valid only temporarily. Based on experiences, more profound and thorough
camp regulations were to be created later. I have reproduced the meaning of
the essentials of the camp regulations, to the best of my knowledge and ac¬
cording to my memory. Kr. Oct. 1, 1946. ”

It describes the “organization of the concentration camp,” giving its main de¬
partments as: I. Headquarters, II, Political Department, III. Protective Custody
Camp, IV: Administration, V. Camp Physician (pp. 54-66).

The protokol of November 7, 1946 extensively covers the preparatory
stages of the Auschwitz Camp’s establishment (pp. 25-29).

The protokol of November 9, 1946 covers Hoss’s story of Himmler’s visit
to Auschwitz on March 1, 1941. On that occasion, Himmler informed Hoss
that the camp had to be expanded to accommodate 30,000 detainees, and gave
orders to build a PoW camp for 100,000 prisoners of war. Himmler moreover
ordered Hoss to make 10,000 detainees available to the I.G. Farbenindustrie
trust for slave labor.

In October 1941, Karl Bischoff assumed the post of head of the Auschwitz
Construction Office. At that time, Hans Kammler informed Hoss that the PoW
camp, whose construction was planned at Birkenau, was intended to accom¬
modate 200,000 prisoners of war (pp. 30-35).

The protokol of November 11, 1946 is dedicated to the Nebenlager (sub¬
camps) of Auschwitz. Otto Moll is mentioned twice: as the Kommandofuhrer
(unit leader) of the Ftirstengrube camp (which provided workers for a coal
mine of the same name) and then of the Gleiwitz subcamp. Hoss mentions the
industries of the Auschwitz complex and adds (pp. 36-45):

Protokol, Sept. 28, 1946. Hoss Trial, AGK, NTN, 103, pp. 19-24. Subsequent page numbers are
all from NTN, 103, unless stated otherwise.

130

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“All this was related to Eichmann’s future activities, who intended to send to
Auschwitz all the Jews of Romania and Bulgaria. There would have been mil¬
lions of people. Some of them would have been employed in factories, but the
majority was to be exterminated. ”

These plans, of course, were not carried out.

The protokol of November 12, 1946 (pp. 46-52) deals with the organiza¬
tion of the camp especially with regard to surveillance. Hoss explains the
terms (in German in the text) of Interessengebiet, Sperrgebiet, Wache, grosse
imd kleine Postenkette, neutrale Zone, etc. Regarding the Sperzone [recte:
Sperrzone', restricted area] he explained (p. 47):

“The area west of the Birkenau Camp to the Vistula was the so-called restrict¬
ed area / Sperzone [sic]/, and therefore nobody was allowed to enter this area
without a special permit, not even the men of the armed guards. In this area,
there were only SS men who were assigned to do this service. This prohibition
was introduced because in this area the extermination facilities / Vernichtung-
sanstallten [sic]/ were concentrated, and were active and in operation there
for carrying out the Jewish operation / Entlosung [sic] der Judenfrage. ”

Hoss then spoke of German concentration camps (13, with about 900 sub¬
camps), as well as the structure of the WVHA and the RSHA.

In the protokol of November 14, 1946 (pp. 67-75), Hoss describes the re¬
sponsibilities of Office D of the WVHA. In this context, he mentions SS
Reichsarzt SS Obergruppenfiihrer Ernst-Robert Grawitz, who was head of Of¬
fice D III (Medical Services and Camp Hygiene), which was actually directed
by SS Standartenfiihrer Enno Lolling (p. 68):

“Through this channel, Grawitz received all the complaints about health care
and hygienics from the camp, as well as all requests for Zyklon B used to kill
people. ”

Hoss then talked about the various types of concentration camps and the vari¬
ous categories of detainees.

The protokol of November 15, 1946 goes into details of the various inmate
categories, the occupancy of the concentration camps (which reached 750,000
in 1944) and the living conditions in the Auschwitz Camp, where, among oth¬
er things, barracks meant for 400 detainees were occupied by a thousand (pp.
76-82).

In the protokol of January 5, 1947 (pp. 83-89), Hoss reports on companies
active in the concentration camps, and on the prisoners’ life in Auschwitz.
Those doing heavy labor received extra rations ( Sonderverpflegung or
Sonderzulage ). In this context, he also mentions “inmates in charge of the unit
dealing with gas chambers and crematoria, that is, the so-called Sonderkom-
mando” (p. 87).

The protokol of January 6, 1947 provides not only detailed information on
the organization of inmate labor at Auschwitz, but also on escapes from the

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

131

camp and on roll calls (pp. 90-99), while that of January 7 focuses on camp
discipline and on punishments imposed on detainees who violated the regula¬
tions (pp. 115-119).

In the protokol of January 8, 1947 (pp. 120-124), Hoss reports about the
physical and mental condition of the detainees. In this regard, he reports that
the Jews had a “great mental vitality,” and adds (pp. 122f.):

“I even observed this in the Jews employed in the Sonderkommando, who at
the end of their work were all destined to die, and they knew it. During the
burning of the gassed Jews in the pits at Birkenau, / personally watched as a
member of the Sonderkommando found the corpse of his wife in the pile of
corpses. He stopped for a moment, realized that he was upset, but immediately
afterwards went back to work and performed it uninterruptedly. The Kapo who
oversaw the work of Sonderkommando detainees explained this incident to
me. ”

Regarding mortality at Auschwitz, Hoss claimed that it was proportionally
equal to that of other camps. In 1944, as reported by Dr. Lolling, 30,000 de¬
tainees died per month in all concentration camps. Hoss did not remember the
Auschwitz figures, but “these figures were high, even in relation to a [single]
day” (p. 124).

The protokol of January 9, 1947 (pp. 125-142) describes the sanitary and
hygienic conditions of the camp and the epidemics that ravaged it. Several
dozen SS men or their wives also died from it. Then Hoss explains the SS
medical organization and reports on the hospital at the Main Camp. The de¬
ceased were taken to Block 28 and then to the crematorium. He recalled that
“the relatives came to see the corpses of the dead inmates, who were shown to
them in a mortuary room especially set up for this in the first crematorium, the
so-called Aiifbahrungsraiim” (p. 129).

Initially, Himmler had ordered that the corpses of inmates who had died in
the camp were to be cremated in the nearest municipal crematorium. Dead
inmates from Auschwitz were thus cremated in the Gleiwitz crematorium. He
then decreed that each camp had to have its own crematorium. In this context,
Hoss reports on the construction of the first crematorium “in the munitions
bunker (w bunkrze)” of the former Polish military barracks (p. 130).

Hoss then talks about medical experiments, particularly those performed
by Dr. Clauberg. For this purpose, special “inmates for the purpose of experi¬
ments” existed at Auschwitz.

With reference to Dr. Horst Schumann, who selected incurable patients
within the euthanasia program that had been extended to the concentration
camps, Hoss reports (pp. 137f.):

“Following Schumann's order, Hossler brought these detainees to the mental
health institute at Konigstein, Saxony, whose patients had already been liqui¬
dated previously. In this institution — as Hossler told me — detainees brought in

132

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

from Auschwitz were put into a bath (do lazni) where they were poisoned with
carbon monoxide / Kohlenoxyd /, which was fed into the bathroom through
shower heads (przez otwory tuszdw). Only these transports were sent from
Auschwitz to Konigstein. ”

In this context, Hoss also mentions Dr. Wirths, who conducted experiments on
detainees (p. 140):

“He performed these interventions in Block 10; they tried to get material for
the early diagnosis of cancer, and they were carried out by Wirths in agree¬
ment with his brother at the Hamburg Cancer Research Institute. ”

Finally, Hoss summarizes the criminal tasks performed by the SS physicians
(p. 141). They are also described in a German text dated “1/47” and titled “The
non-medical activities of SS physicians at the Auschwitz Concentration
Camp.” I translate only the most pertinent points (pp. 149f.):

“1. From the arriving transports of Jews, they had to select the male and fe¬
male Jews fit for work according to the guidelines given by the RA-SS [sic].

2. They had to be present at the gas chambers during the extermination opera¬
tions and had to supervise the prescribed application of the poison gas Cyklon
B by the disinfectors SDGs. After the gas chambers were opened, they fur¬
thermore had to make sure that the extermination was comprehensive.

3. The dentists had to make sure by repeated spot checks that the inmate den¬
tists of the Sonderkommando pulled the gold teeth of all gassed victims and
threw them into the secured containers at hand. They moreover had to monitor
the melting of the dental gold and its secure storage until its delivery.

4. In Auschwitz, Birkenau and in the labor camps, the SS physicians had to
constantly muster out Jews who had become unfit for work and who could not
be expected to become fit for labor within four weeks, and had to bring them to
their extermination. Jews supect of suffering from epidemic diseases also had
to be exterminated. Bedridden inmates were to be killed by injections, the oth¬
ers were to be exterminated by means of gas in the crematoria or in the Bun¬
ker. To me knowledge, phenol, Evipan and hydrogen cyanide were used for the
injections. [...]

9. Experiments were carried out by:

a/ Dr. Wirths: Cancer research, examinations and surgical interventions on
Jewesses supect of, or actually suffering from, cancer,
b/ Dr. Mengele: Twin research; studying identical twins. ”

The protokol of January 11, 1947 fills only one page. Hoss explains the “true”
function of the Auschwitz camp: it was “the site of the mass extermination of
the Jews of every nationality and from every country conquered by the Third
Reich” in which the “operation of exterminating the Jews” (“ Judenvernich-

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

133

tungsaktion ”) took place and which he called “extermination facility” (“Ver-
nichtungsanstalt”; p. 151). 91

This is repeated in another statement, also dated January 11, 1947 (pp. 151-
159). Hoss outlines a rather unlikely story of the extermination of the Jews in
the Third Reich. According to this, the first phase is said to have been con¬
ducted at the beginning of the war by an “Einsatzkommando” which “was un¬
der the command of SS Brigadefiihrer Ohlendorf.”

"The second phase was the operation carried out in the Warta district by the
district head of the SS and the police [.Hoherer SS- und Polizeifiihrer] v. Al-
vensleben in Posen and the head of the SS and the police [55- und Polizeifiih-
rer\ Globocnik in his district, or after the beginning of the war with Russia in
the eastern territories, v. Alvensleben and Globocnik established extermina¬
tion facilities for the Jews under their respective command — v. Alvensleben in
Chelmno /Chulmhof/ and in Grudziqdz, Globocnik in Sobibor, Belzec, Treblin-
ka and Lublin. The facilities of Grudziqdz, Chelmno and Treblinka were al¬
ready established in 1940, Globocnik’s other facilities since the beginning of
the war with the Soviet Union in 1941. ” (p. 153)

Auschwitz, which is said to have been part of this general plan of the extermi¬
nation of the Jews, was commanded by Hoss from May 1940 to November

1943. He returned to it in early June 1944 and remained there until August, of¬
ficially taking over the command of the Auschwitz SS garrison. In November

1944, Himmler “imposed a ban on any further extermination of Jews.” This
was due to negotiations Himmler conducted together with Kurt Becher with
the Zionist leader “Weissmann,” presumably Chaim Weizmann (p. 155).

Hoss then repeats that Eichmann informed him in April 1945 of the
2,500,000 Auschwitz victims. He retraces his career and claims a series of
“facts,” among them (p. 158):

“5. Since the summer of 1941, I was preparing, and since January 1942, I was
directing the mass extermination of the Jews in the extermination facilities of
the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

6. During my term of office in Auschwitz, millions ofpeople perished, the exact
figures of which I cannot determine. ”

The protokol of January 29, 1947 92 was translated into English and became
Document NI-7183, which itself has the heading “Translation of document
No. NI-7183. Office of Chief of Counsel for war Crimes.” It must be assumed
that the Poles explicitly requested this statement from Hoss for their former
western allies. It begins with the author’s personal data (previously only made
in the statement of September 28, 1946), and in the first part it consists essen¬
tially of a summary of Hoss’s essay “The ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Ques-

91 The page number of this page is written in pencil, in contrast to the other pages, whose page num¬
bers are stamped.

Protokol, January 29, 1947. Hoss Trial, AGK, NTN, 131, pp. 200-207, and NTN, 172, pp. 42-49.

134

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

tion’ at Auschwitz CC” (Die “Endlosimg der Judenfrage” im KL Auschwitz)
written in November 1946, but with some significant differences: 93

“As / already explained in my former detailed depositions, Himmler gave me
in the summer of 1941 the order to cany out in the concentration camp of
Oswiecim the action of final extermination of Jews (Vernichtungsauftrag —
Endlosung^ der Judenfrage). 1 was told to discuss all the technical details of
the execution of this order with Eichmann from the Reich Security’ Main Office
(Reichssicherheitshauptamt — RSHA). A short time later Eichmann came to
Oswiecim. Here we discussed all the matters relating to the planned extermi¬
nation of Jews agreeing that gas should be used in the killing of Jews. The on¬
ly question which remained open was what kind of gas to use. Eichmann left
Oswiecim with the aim of gathering information what poisoning gas would be
best for mass extermination of Jews. A short time later, in any event still in the
year 1941, after my return from an official trip I got from the then manager of
the camp, (Schutzhaftlagerfuhrer), Fritscf 95 ^ a report that during my absence,
he conducted in the cellars of block 11a test of poisoning human beings with
the aid of cyklon B which was stored in the camp of Oswiecim as a disinfect¬
ant. Fritsch conducted the test on several hundred of Russian war prisoners.
According to my information this was the first case of using cyklon B for mass
poisoning people. As the test was successful / reported it to Eichmann who
gave his agreement to the use of cyklon B for mass extermination of Jews in
the concentration camp of Oswiecim. The camp management bought the cyk¬
lon needed for this action directly from the firm Tesch and Stabenow in Ham¬
burg. Later on, the chief camp surgeon took care of this matter (Standortarzt)
contacting the chief SS sanitation office (Stanitdtshauptamt) and especially the
chief SS sanitorian (Oberste Hygieniker der Waffen-SS) Dr. Mrugowsky. From
that time cyklon B was used exclusively in Oswiecim for the mass poisoning of
Jews. This gas proved to be easy to handle and it was not necessary to build
special complicated equipment for its use. Only cyklon B was used in
Oswiecim for the poisoning of people.

Plans for the gas chambers in which people in Oswiecim were poisoned with
cyklon B were made by Karl Bischoff chief of the building section of the con¬
centration camp, and by myself. The project was later discussed with the chief
of the official group C, Dr. Eng. Kammler. The construction of the gas cham¬
bers was made by the camp's building office under the direction of its chief,
Bischoff. Nobody from the /. G. Farben personnel took part in the planning and
the construction of the gas chambers in Oswiecim.

When giving me the order for extermination of Jews in Oswiecim Himmler told
me to keep it a secret even toward my superiors, as to the meaning and its ap¬
plication. He mentioned also that he will inform personally my superiors as

Deposition. Krakow, January 29, 1947. NI-7183, pp. If.

I restored here for the German words the Umlaute as they appear in the Polish original.
So also in the Polish text. The correct spelling is Fritzsch.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

135

also all interested offices concerning the order given me. In view of this order
/ did not talk with anybody about the fact of extermination of Jews in the con¬
centration camp in Oswiecim and did not give any information to anybody on
this topic. ”

The rest of the statement concerns the I.G. Farbenindustrie trust. Among other
things, Floss talks about the selection of inmates unfit for work by SS physi¬
cians at the Monowitz Camp: 96

“Selections were made only among the Jewish prisoners. Selected were those
Jews [who] due to their bad health could not be used for work inside [within]
four weeks. Prisoners who had been selected were sent to Oswiecim in
trucks. ”

These selections happened “for extermination.” In this context Hoss affirms:

“According to Himmler’s order each Jewish prisoner who was unfit for work
and who most probably could not return to work inside of four weeks had to be
selected. The decision in this matter rested with the physicians who conducted
the selection and who sent for extermination in the gas chambers, those pris¬
oners who in their opinion were affected by Himmler’s order. ”

The protokol of January 30, 1947 was drawn up by Hoss on the basis of a
questionnaire submitted by the Poles on the racial politics of the Third Reich,
with particular regard to children. Unlike the “Aryans,” Jewish children were
immediately gassed on their arrival at Birkenau. Hoss recalled in particular
those of the Thessaloniki Ghetto - 65,000 Jews who came to Auschwitz,
whole families with children. 97

In the protokol of January 31, 1947 (pp. 159-165) Hoss commented on
some documents that had been presented to him: “ Disziplinar- und Straford-
nung fur die Gefangenenlager ,” “Gliedenmg der Haftlinge laut Haftbefehl
nach Haftartf “Kennzeichen fur Schutzhaftlinge in den Konz.Lagern,” “ Bild-
erbuch ‘Falsch - Richtig’ a letter by Glucks dated March 21, 1942, the affi¬
davit by SS Standartenfiihrer Kurt Becher of March 8, 1946, Nuremberg
Document PS-3762, which notably concerns the alleged Himmler order, given
some time between mid-September and mid-October 1944, to cease the ex¬
termination of the Jews. Hoss explained (p. 162):

“Because of this order, the mass extermination of Jews with gas was halted,
but their situation did not improve because they were cooped up in the concen¬
tration camps, besides Auschwitz also in Mauthausen, where they died in
masses because of diseases and starvation. ”

Later Hoss states (p. 163):

Ibid., p. 3.

Protokol, January 29, 1947. AGK, NTN, 131, pp. 251-255; all subsequent page numbers from
NTN, 131, unless stated otherwise.

136

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“On January 9, 1943, the Minister of Justice, Thierak/Vol. 12, p. 220/ visited
the Auschwitz Camp. ”

He takes the blame (but does not explain for what reason) that Bracht, Hanke
and Schmauser observed the process of gassing and the cremation of the
corpses.

Next, Hoss comments on photographs nos. 130 through 159 relating to
Himmler’s inspection of the Auschwitz Camp on July 18, 1942. There are ac¬
tually many more photos in that series, as the numbers reach up to 255. They
are reproduced in Chapter 15 of the files of the Hoss Trial. 98 Some explana¬
tions are surprising. Photograph No. 163 shows the construction of Morgue #2
(the alleged “undressing room”) of Crematorium II in October 1942. One can
see only the foundation trench and at the bottom the lateral wooden plank¬
ing. 99 Hoss states about this photo:

“Photo No. 163 shows a scene fromn the construction of the gas chamber of
Crematorium III at Birkenau. ” (p. 164)

Thus, Morgue #2 of Crematorium II turned into Morgue #1 of Crematorium

III!

Photo No. 166 shows the eastern front and a part of the south side of Cre¬
matorium IV in February 1943. Behind the building, to the north side, smoke
seems to rise. And here is Hoss’s comment:

“In Photograph No. 166, there is a cloud of smoke rising from the stacks of
corpses burning in the trenches near Bunker No. 2 /Freianlage/. ” (p. 164)

The late French Auschwitz researcher Jean-Claude Pressac, who also pub¬
lished this photograph, makes no mention of any smoke. 100 From aerial photo¬
graphs of Birkenau taken in 1944, we can glean that the extension of the
southern front of the Crematorium IV barely touched the area of the claimed
open-air cremations near the so-called Bunker 2 (that is, the pentagon-shaped
area located about 250 meters west). The photograph in question was taken
from the southeast, however, hence the extension of the line of sight runs sev¬
eral hundred meters north of this pentagonal area. Moreover, the smoke ap¬
pears to emanate from an area directly behind the crematorium, and only to a
limited extent (left and right in the background, one can see the tree tops).

There are two more photographs taken on the same day, probably within a
short period of time, offering an overview of the south and northern sides of
Crematorium IV. 101 The first photo contains no trace of smoke. On the other, a
small cloud of smoke is visible coming out of something that resembles a
small chimney located in the north side of that building. This may have been
the origin of the smoke appearing in Photo No. 166.

98 AGK, NTN, 97, pp. 21-70.

99 This photo is reproduced in Pressac 1989, p. 333.

100 Pressac 1989, Photo 5 onp. 415.

101 Ibid., Photos 4 & 6, p. 415.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

137

On March 12, 1947, on the day of the second hearing of his trial (see Sec¬
tion 3 of this chapter), Hoss prepared a German-language affidavit on the use
of concentration-camp detainees by private companies. He wrote it at the re¬
quest of the U.S. official John H.E. Fried, who planned to use it during the
I.G. Farben Trial (August 1947 - July 1948), which at that time was in the
pre-trial phase. The statement does not contain references to the extermination
of the Jews. Only the following single hint can be found in it: 102

“[...] Jews who were selected only due to their ability to work. The age of in¬
mates used for labor deployment ranged from roughly 13 years onward. In¬
mates older then 50 years were rarely used for labor deployment, unless they
were particularly strong or particularly educated; otherwise they were exter¬
minated right away. ”

2. The Krakow Aufzeichnungen

While in the prison at Krakow and concurrently with the ongoing interroga¬
tions, Hoss wrote in pencil a series of texts between November 1946 and
March 1947 about his life, his activities at Auschwitz and the most important
SS characters he had met. He did that at the suggestion of the physician and
criminologist Prof. Stanislaw Batawia and due to pressure exerted by Investi¬
gating Judge Jan Sehn. The two best-known writings are the so-called autobi¬
ography titled “My Psyche, Development, Life and Experiences” (“ Meine
Psyche, Werden, Leben und Erleben”) and the text titled “The Final Solution
of the Jewish Question at Auschwitz Concentration Camp” (“Die Endlosung
der Judenfrage im K.L. Auschwitz ”). They were translated into Polish and
published in 1951. In addition to the two texts mentioned above, Number 7 of
the Bulletin of the Central Commission for the Investigation of Hitlerite
Crimes in Poland contained Hoss’s German Declaration of April 12, 1947, to
which I will return later, and five of Hoss’s 25 brief descriptions of SS per¬
sonalities: T[h]eodor Eicke, Adolf Eichmann, Karol [Karl] Fritsch [Fritzsch],
Gerhard Palitsch [Palitzsch], Hans Aumeier. 103

In 1955, the above-mentioned Commission published, in Polish translation,
the two writings in question together with 33 other writings by Hoss, in this
order: Organization Schmelt, Heinrich Himmler, Lebensbom, Adolf Eich¬
mann, Heinrich Muller, Oswald Pohl, Gerhard Maurer, Odilo Globocnik,
Theodor Eicke, Richard Glucks, Arthur Liebehenschel, Fritz Hartjenstein,
Concentration Camp Regulations, “Night and Fog,” SS Ranks, Blood Groups,
Karl Fritzsch, Hans Aumeier, Maximilian Grabner, Gerhard Palitzsch, Hein¬
rich Schwarz, Max Sell, Hans Kammler, Karl Bishoff, Richard Baer, Willi

102 NI-4434. “Eidesstattliche Erklaerung, Warschau, den 12. Maerz 1947,”, p. 2.

103 Biuletyn Glownej Komisji Badania zbrodni hitlerowskich w Polsce. Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa
Sprawiedliwosci, No. VII, 1951.

138

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Burger, Karl Ernst Mockel, Joachim Caesar, Emst-Robert Grawitz, Eduard
Wirths, non-medical activities of SS physicians at the concentration camp
(Glowna Komisja..., 1956).

The German transcriptions of the two mentioned major texts were pub¬
lished, with various omissions, by Martin Broszat in 1958. 104 Of the many de¬
scriptions of SS personalities written by Hoss, Broszat reproduced only that of
Himmler, but without the first nine pages. 105

2.1. The ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’ at Auschwitz CC

This manuscript with the original German title Die Endlosung der Judenfrage
im K.L. Auschwitz consists of 34 pages and ends at the end of November 1946
(see Document 15). 106 It is Hoss’s most organic and complete text on the gen¬
esis and development of the alleged extermination at Auschwitz, and no doubt
precisely for this reason the most-quoted text of the former commandant of
Auschwitz. It starts right away with his alleged call to Berlin by Himmler: 107

“In the summer of 1941,1 currently cannot remember the exact point in time, I
was suddenly summoned to the Reichsfiihrer SS, that is, directly by his adju¬
tant 's office. Himmler, contrary to his usual custom without the presence of his
adjutant, disclosed to me something to the effect of the following:

‘The Fuhrer has ordered the final solution of the Jewish question; we, the SS,
have to cariy out that order. The existing extermination sites in the east are
not able to cariy out the intended large operations. I have therefore designat¬
ed Auschwitz for this, for one thing because of its favorable location in terms
of transport, and second the area to be determined for this can easily be cor¬
doned off and camouflaged. At first, I had selected a senior SS officer for this
job, but in order to circumvent competence problems right from the start, this
will not happen, and now you have to carry out this task. It is a difficult and
onerous job requiring the total commitment of the entire person, without con¬
cern for possibly arising difficulties. You will learn further details from Sturm-
bannfuhrer Eichmann of the Reich Security’ Main Office who will call on you
in the immediate future.

The departments concerned will be notified by me in due course. You have to
treat this order as absolutely secret, even from your superiors. After your talk
with Eichmann you will immediately forward to me the plans of the projected
installations.

The Jews are the eternal enemies of the German people and must be eradicat¬
ed. Eveiy Jew that we can lay our hands on is to be destroyed now during the

104 For quotes, we use as a starting point the English translation as published in Bezwinska/Czech
1984, but since it is at times inaccurate, we have amended it where needed based on the text of
Broszat’s 1981 edition.

105 Broszat 1981, “Der Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler,” pp. 172-187.

106 IfZ, Fa 13/5, pp. 244-275.

107 Broszat 1981, pp. 157-159; Bezwinska/Czech 1984, pp. 109-112; subsequently, the first page
number refers to Broszat 1981, the second to Bezwinska/Czech 1984.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

139

war, without exception. If we do not manage now to obliterate the biological
basis of Jewry, the Jews will one day destroy the German people. ’

After having received this grave order, I returned to Auschwitz instantly with¬
out reporting to my superior office at Oranienburg.

Shortly afterwards Eichmann came to me at Auschwitz. He disclosed to me the
plans for the operation in the individual countries. The sequence I can no
longer remember exactly. First in line for Auschwitz was to be Upper Silesia
and the adjacent parts of the Government General. Simultaneously, and then
stepby step, depending on the situation, the Jews from Germany and Czecho¬
slovakia. Subsequently the West: France, Belgium and Holland. He also told
me the approximate numbers of transports to be expected, but I can no longer
recall these.

We discussed the implementation of the extermination. The only option was
gas, ”

because the killings could not be carried out by shootings or with carbon
monoxide, as used for the mentally sick.

“ We did not make a decision in this matter. Eichmann wanted to inquire about
a gas which could easily be acquired and did not require any special installa¬
tions, and then wanted to report back to me. ”

Meanwhile Hoss and Eichmann picked the site of the alleged extermination:

“ We drove into the area in order to determine a suitable site. We considered
as suitable the farmstead located in the north-west corner of what later be¬
came Construction Sector III at Birkenau. It was secluded, protected from
view by forested ares and hedges, and not too far from the railway. The bodies
were to be placed into long, deep pits dug in the adjacent meadows. At that
point in time we had not yet thought of incineration. We calculated that in the
rooms existing there, after gas-proofing them, about 800 people could be
killed simultaneously with a suitable gas. This corresponded to the later ca¬
pacity.

Eichmann could not yet give me the starting date for the operation because
everything was still in preparation, and the RFSS had not yet ordered to
launch it.

Eichmann drove back to Berlin to report our conversation to the RFSS.

A few days later, I sent to the RFSS by courier an exact location map and an
exact description of the installation. I have never received a reply or a deci¬
sion about it. Eichmann told me later that the RFSS approved of it.

At the end of November, a conference of the entire Jewish Department was
held in Berlin at Eichmann’s office, to which I was called in as well. Eich¬
mann 's representatives in the individual countries reported on the current
stage of the operations and on the difficulties opposing the implementation of
the operations, such as lodging those arrested, procuring transport trains,
railway timetable conferences, etc. I could not yet find out when the operation
was to be launched. Eichmann moreover had not yet located a suitable gas. ”

140

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

At this point, the deus ex machina appears by way of the magical “discovery”
of the suitable gas by Fritzsch and the “first gassing” (pp. 159fi; 112-114):

“In the autumm of 1941, by way of a secret special order, the Gestapo serened
out the Russian politruks, commissars and specific political officials in the
prisoner-of-war camps, and transfered them to the nearest concentration camp
for liquidation. Small transports of that kind were continually arriving in
Auschwitz, which were shot in the gravel pit near the Monopoly buildings or in
the courtyard of Block 11. On the occasion of a business trip, my deputy,
Hauptsturmfuhrer Fritzsch, had used gas on his own initiative to eradicate
these Russian prisoners of war. He did it by cramming the individual cells lo¬
cated in the basement full of Russians and, while using gas masks, throwing
Cyclon [sic] B gas into the cells, causing instant death.

The Tesch & Stabenow Company used Cyclon B gas constantly in Auschwitz
for pest control, and there was therefore always a supply of these gas cans
stored at the administration. In the beginning, this poisonous gas, which was a
preparation of hydrogen cyanide, was applied exclusively by employees of the
Tesch & Stabenow Company with the greatest safety measures, but later sev¬
eral medical orderlies were trained by this company, and then they carried out
the use of the gas for decontamination and pest control.

During Eichmann’s next visit, I told him about this use of Cyclon B, and we
decided to employ this gas for the future mass extermination.

The killing with Cyclon B gas of the above-mentioned Russian prisoners was
continued, but no longer in Block 11, since after the gassing the whole build¬
ing had to be ventilated for at least two days.

Hence, the mortuary of the crematorium next to the hospital was used as a
gassing room by making the door gasproof, and by piercing several holes
through the ceiling in order to throw in the gas.

I can, however, recall only one transport of900 Russian prisoners of war who
were gassed there and whose cremation lasted several days. Russians were not
gassed in the farmstead adaptedfor the extermination of the Jews.

I can no longer say at what point in time the extermination of the Jews began.
Probably already in September 1941, but maybe only as late as January 1942.
It concerned the Jews from Upper Silesia. These Jews were arrested by the
Kattowitz State Police Office, and brought by train to a siding on the west side
of the Auschwitz-Dziedzice railway line where they were unloaded. As far as I
remember, these transports never exceeded 1,000 people. ”

This is followed by his description of the first gassing at the “ Bunker ” (pp.
160; 114-116:

“On the railway ramp, the Jews were taken over from the state police by a de¬
tachment from the camp, and were brought by the commander of the protective
custody camp in two batches to the bunker, as the extermination facility was
called. [...]

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

141

The Jews had to undress near the bunker; they were told that for the purpose
of delousing they had to go into the thusly labeled rooms.

All the rooms, there were five of them, were filled at the same time, the gas-
proofed doors were screw’ed shut, and the contents of the gas cans poured into
the rooms through special hatches.

After half an hour, the doors were re-opened — there were two doors in each
room — the dead bodies were dragged out and brought to the pits in small trol¬
leys running on narrow-gauge rails.

The clothing was taken by trucks to the sorting site. The whole work —
assistance during undressing, filling the bunker, removal of the corpses as
well as excavating and filling in the mass graves — was carried out by a spe¬
cial unit of Jews who were accommodated separately and who, according to
Eichmann’s order, had to be eliminated themselves after eveiy major opera¬
tion.

Already during the first transports, Eichmann conveyed an order from the
RFSS according to which the gold teeth were to be removed from the corpses,
and the hair cut from the women. This job was also carried out by the special
unit [ Sonderkommando ]. ”

Sick inmates “were killed with a shot in the back of the neck by a small cali¬
bre weapon”; “An SS physician had to be present” during the gassing; and
“the gas was thrown in by the trained disinfectors (medical orderlies).”

The story continues with the adaptation of “Bunker 2” (pp. 160f.; 116):

“While the operations in spring 1942 were still kind of small, the transports
increased during the summer, and we were forced to create another extermi¬
nation facility. The farmstead west of the later Crematoria III and IV was se¬
lected and adapted. Two barracks for undressing were erected near Bunker I,
and three near Bunker II. Bunker II was larger; it could hold about 1,200 peo¬
ple. ”

Hoss then outlines the history of outdoor cremations at Auschwitz, which was
ordered by Himmler after his visit in July 1942 (pp. 161 f.; 116f.):

“During the summer of 1942 the bodies were still being placed in the mass
graves. Only toward the end of the summer did we start with the burnings, at
first on piles of wood bearing some 2,000 corpses, and later in pits together
with bodies previously buried. In the early days oil refuse was poured on the
bodies, but later methanol was used. Bodies were burnt in pits, day and night,
continuously.

By the end of November all the mass graves had been emptied. The number of
corpses buried in the mass graves was 107,000. This figure not only includes
the transports of Jews gassed from the start up to the beginning of the crema¬
tions, but also the corpses of inmates who died in Auschwitz in the winter of
1941/42, when the crematorium near the hospital building was inoperative for
a longer period of time. It also includes all the deceased prisoners of the
Birkenau camp.

142

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

During his visit to the camp in the summer of 1942, the Reichsfiihrer SS
watched every detail of the whole process of destruction from the time when
the prisoners were unloaded to the emptying of Bunker II. At that time the bod¬
ies were not being burnt. [...]

Shortly after the visit of the Reichsfiihrer SS, Standartenfiihrer Blobel arrived
from Eichmann’s office with an order from the Reichsfiihrer SS stating that all
the mass graves were to be opened and the corpses burnt. In addition, the ash¬
es were to be disposed of in such a way that it would be impossible at some fu¬
ture time to calculate the number of corpses burnt.

Blobel had already experimented with different methods of cremation in
Culmhof and Eichmann had authorized him to show me the apparatus he used.
Hossler and I went to Culmhof on a tour of inspection. Blobel had various
makeshift furnaces constructed, which were fired with wood and petrol refuse.
He had also attempted to dispose of the bodies with explosives, but their de¬
struction had been very incomplete. The ashes were distributed over the
neighbouring countryside after first being ground to a powder in a bone mill. ”

Hoss then mentions the alleged “Operation 1005” directed by Paul Blobel, and

in this context, he affirms in a visionary way (ibid 118):

“Auschwitz concentration camp was continuously called upon to provide Jews
for department ‘1005’.”

I will get back to his alleged visit to Kulmhof further below. Hoss then returns

to Himmler’s alleged order (p. 162; 118):

“Originally all the Jews transported to Auschwitz on the authority of Eich¬
mann ’s office were, in accordance with orders of the Reichsfiihrer SS, to be
destroyed without exception. This also applied to the Jews from Upper Silesia,
but on the arrival of the first transports of German Jews, the order was given
that all those who were able-bodied, whether men or women, were to be seg¬
regated and employed on war work. This happened before the construction of
the women’s camp, since the need for a women’s camp in Auschwitz only
arose as a result of this order. ”

Hence, if we follow Hoss, the RSHA, the Reichsarzt SS and the WVHA all

pursued different goals and were thus in constant conflict (pp. 162f.; 118f.):
“The Reich Security Head Office (Muller and Eichmann) had, for security
reasons, the greatest interest in the destruction of as many Jews as possible.
The Reichsarzt SS [...] held the view that only those Jews who were completely
fit and able to work should be selectedfor employment. [...]

The Economic Administration Head Office (Pohl and Maurer) was only inter¬
ested in mustering the largest possible labour force for employment in the ar¬
maments industiy, regardless of the fact that these people would later on be¬
come incapable of working. [...]

It was impossible to get the Reichsfiihrer SS to make a definite decision in this
matter. ”

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

143

The Jews selected for work amounted to approximately 25-30% of the total
number of deportees (p. 163; 119).

Hoss then explains the how and why of the need to build the crematoria at
Birkenau (pp. 164f.; 122-124):

“It became apparent already during the first outdoor cremations that this
could not be carried out that way in the long run. During bad weather or when
a strong wind was blowing, the stench of burning flesh was carried for many
miles and caused the population living nearby to talk about the burning of
Jews, despite the counter-propaganda by the party and by administrative of¬
fices. [...]

Moreover the air defence services protested against the fires during the night
which could be seen from great distances. Nevertheless, burnings had to go on
even at night in order that incoming transports did not have to be stopped. The
above reasons led to the planning, spurred on by all means, and to the eventu¬
al construction of the two large crematoria, and in 1943 to the building of two
further smaller installation. Another facility far exceeding those under con¬
struction was devised later but was never realized, for in the autumn of 1944,
the Reichsfuhrer SS ordered an immediate halt to the extermination of the
Jews.

The two large Crematoria I and II were built in the winter of 1942-3, and
started operating in the spring of 1943. They had five triple-muffle furnaces
and could each cremate about 2,000 bodies within twenty-four hours. For rea¬
sons of cremation technology, it was not possible to increase their capacity.
Attempts resulted in severe damage leading to a complete suspension of opera¬
tions on several occasions. Both Crematoria I and II had undressing and gas¬
sing rooms located underground that could be ventilated. The corpses were
taken upstairs to the furnaces by means of an elevator. The gassing rooms
could hold about 3,000 people each; these numbers were never reached,
though, since the individual transports were never as large as that.

According to calculations by the construction firm Topf of Erfurt, the two
smaller Crematoria III and IV should each have been able to burn 1,500
[corpses] within 24 hours. Owing to war-time shortages of materials, the Con¬
struction Office was compelled to build [Crematoria] III and IV using cheaper
material, hence the undressing and gassing rooms at ground level and the fur¬
naces of a lightweight design. It soon became apparent, however, that the
lightweight design of the furnaces, two 4-muffle furnaces each, was not able to
meet the demands. Ill failed completely after a short time and was not used
anymore at all. IV had to be shut down repeatedly, since after a brief crema¬
tion period of four to six weeks, the furnaces or the chimneys burnt out. The
gassing victims were usually burned in pits behind Crematorium IV.

The provisional installation I was demolished when work was started on Con¬
struction Sector III of Birkenau.

Installation II, later called outdoor installation or Bunker V, was used until the
end, serving as an auxiliary option in case of breakdowns in Crematoria I to

144

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

IV. During operations with swift successions of trains, gassings were carried
out by day in Number V, those arrived during the night in I to IV. When cre¬
mations could still be carried out day and night, the cremation capacity of V
was basically unlimited. Because of enemy air activities, no further cremations
were permitted during the night starting in 1944. The highest number of gas¬
sings and cremations reached within 24 hours was a little more than 9,000,
using all installations except for III, in the summer of 1944 during the Hunga¬
ry operation when, owing to train delays, five trains arrived within 24 hours
instead of three, which were moreover more crowded than usual. ”

Hoss next gives a catastrophic description of the conditions of detainees in
Auschwitz (p. 166; 125):

“Because of the increasing insistence of the Reichsfiihrer SS on the employ¬
ment of prisoners in the armaments industry, Obergruppenfiihrer Pohl found
himself compelled to resort to Jew’s who had become unfit for work. The order
was given that if the latter could be made fit and employable within six weeks,
they were to be given special care and feeding. Up to then all Jews who had
become incapable of working were gassed with the next transports, or killed
by injection if they happened to be lying ill in the sick block. As far as Ausch-
witz-Birkenau was concerned, this order was sheer travesty. Everything was
lacking. There were practically no medical supplies. The accommodation was
such that there was scarcely even room for those who were most seriously ill.
The food was completely insufficient, and every month the Food Ministry cut
down the supplies still further. But all protests were unavailing and an attempt
to carry out the order had to be made.

The resultant overcrowding of the healthy prisoners could no longer be avoid¬
ed. The general standard of health was thereby lowered, and diseases spread
like wildfire. As a result of this order the death rate spiked and a tremendous
deterioration in the general conditions developed. I do not believe that a single
sick Jew was ever made fit again for work in the armaments industry. ”

On the next page of the manuscript, omitted by Broszat and Bezwinska/Czech,
Hoss writes about the medical experiments allegedly conducted at Auschwitz
by Dr. Clauberg and Dr. Schumann (sterilizations), by Dr. Wirths (cancer re¬
search and experiments with hydrogen-cyanide injections and methanol on
“transport Jews”). Furthermore:

“Dr. Mengele [:] twin research using identical twins (children). As far as I
know, no surgeries or injuries inflicted, merely theoretical assessments. ”

He then provides this clarification: 108

“ ‘Transport Jews ’ was the term for all Jews who were brought to the camp by
Eichmann's Office - RSHA IV B4. The reports announcing the arrival bore the
notice: ‘The transport corresponds to the instructions given and is to be sub-

1,18 lfZ, Fa 13/5, p. 261 (p. 18 of the manuscript). This passage is included in Bezwiriska/Czech 1984,

p. 126.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

145

jected to SB (special treatment). ’ All other Jews of earlier times, that is before
the extermination order, were called ‘Jews in protective custody ’ or Jews of
other inmate categories. ”

After that, Hoss resumes the issue of the number of victims (pp. 166f; 126f.):
“During previous interrogations I have put the number of Jews who arrived in
Auschwitz for extermination at two and a half millions. This figure was sup¬
plied by Eichmann who gave it to my superior officer, Gruppenfiihrer Glucks,
when he was ordered to make a report to the Reichsfiihrer SS shortly before
Berlin was surrounded. Eichmann and his permanent deputy Gunther were the
only ones who possessed the necessary information from which to calculate
the total number destroyed. In accordance with orders given by the Reichsfiih-
rer SS, after eveiy large action all evidence in Auschwitz on which a calcula¬
tion of the number of victims might be based had to be burnt.

As head of Department DII personally destroyed every bit of evidence which
could be found in my office. The heads of other offices did the same.

According to Eichmann, the Reichsfiihrer SS and the Reich Security Head Of¬
fice also had all their data destroyed.

Only his personal notes could give the required information. It is possible that,
owing to the negligence of some department or other, a few isolated docu¬
ments, teleprinter messages, or wireless messages have been left understroyed,
but they could not give sufficient information on which to make a calculation. ”

For his part, Hoss repeated (p. 167; 127-129):

“I myself never knew the total number and I have no point of reference to help
me make an estimate of it.

I can only remember the figures involved in the larger actions, which were re¬
peated to me by Eichmann or his deputies.

From Upper Silesia and Generalgouvernement

250,000

Germany and Theresienstadt

100,000

Holland

95,000

Belgium

20,000

France

110,000

Greece

65,000

Hungary

400,000

Slovakia

90,000

I can no longer remember the figures for the smaller actions, but they were in¬
significant in comparison with the numbers given above. I regard a total of
two and a half millions as far too high. Even Auschwitz had limits to its de¬
structive possibilities. Figures given by former prisoners are figments of the
imagination and lack any foundation. ”

A few pages later, Hoss writes about his visits to Chelmno and Treblinka (pp.
169f.; 132f.):

146

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“In addition to Auschwitz there existed, so far as I am aware, the following ex¬
termination centres for Jews:

Kulmhof near Litzmannstadt
Treblinka on the Bug
Sobibor near Lublin
Belzec near Lemberg
Lublin (Majdanek)

Engine exhaust gases
Engine exhaust gases
Engine exhaust gases
Engine exhaust gases
Cyclon B

I myself have only seen Culmhof and Treblinka. Culmhof had ceased to be
used, but in Treblinka I saw the whole operation. ”

Hoss had mentioned this camp earlier, which I repeat here (p. 162; 118):

“On my visit to Culmhof I also saw the extermination devices with the trucks,
which were designed to kill by using the exhaust gases from the engines. The
officer in charge there, however, described this method as being extremely un¬
reliable, for the gas developed only erratically and was often insufficient to be
lethal.

How many bodies lay in the mass graves at Kulmhof or how many had already
been cremated, I was unable to ascertain. ”

On the whole operation Hoss claims to have observed at Treblinka, he writes
(p. 170; 133):

“[...] in Treblinka I saw the whole operation. The latter [Treblinka] had sev¬
eral chambers, capable of holding some hundreds of people, built directly by
the railway track. The Jews went straight into the gas-chambers — still dressed
- by way of a platform which was level with the trucks [sic, read tracks]. A mo¬
tor room had been built next to the gas-chambers, equipped with various en¬
gines taken from large lorries and tanks. These were started up and the ex¬
haust gases were led by pipes into the gas-chambers, thereby killing the people
inside. It took more than half an hour until all was silent inside the rooms. Af¬
ter an hour, the gas-chambers were opened up and the bodies taken out, un¬
dressed and burnt on a framework made of railway tracks.

The fires were stoked with wood, the bodies being sprayed every now and then
with petrol refuse. During my visit all those who had been gassed were dead.
But I was told that the performance of the engines was not always uniform, so
that the exhaust gases were often insufficiently strong to kill everyone in the
chambers. Many of them were only rendered unconscious and had to be fin¬
ished off by shooting. I heard the same story in Kulmhof and I was also told by
Eichmann that these defects had occurred in other places.

In Kulmhof, too, the Jews sometimes broke the sides of the trucks in an attempt
to escape. ”

In his description of the extermination procedure at Auschwitz (pp. 170f.;
134f.), Hoss states that the victims were led “into the gas-chambers, which
were furnished with showers and water pipes and gave a realistic impression
of a bath house.” A little later, he continues as follows:

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

147

“The door was now quickly screwed shut, and the waiting disinfectors imme¬
diately threw the gas into the throw-in hatches through the ceiling of the gas-
chamber, down an air shaft that led to the floor. This caused the instant devel¬
opment of the gas. It could be observed through the peep hole in the door that
those standing nearest to the throw-in fell over dead at once. It can be said
that about one-third died straight away. The remainder staggered about and
began to scream and struggle for air. The screaming, however, soon changed
to the death rattle and in a few minutes all lay still. After twenty minutes at the
latest no movement could be discerned. The time required for the gas to have
effect varied according to the weather, and depended on whether it was damp
or dry, cold or warm. It also depended on the quality of the gas, which was
never exactly the same, and on the composition of the transports which might
contain a high proportion of healthy Jews, or old and sick, or children. Un¬
consciousness set in already after a few minutes, depending on the distance
from the throw-in shaft. Those who screamed and those who were old or sick
or weak, or the small children, died more quickly than those who were healthy
or young.

The door was opened half an hour after the induction of the gas, and the venti¬
lation switched on. Work was immediately begun on removing the corpses.
There was no noticeable change in the bodies and no sign of convulsions or
discoloration. Only after the bodies had been left lying for some time, that is to
say after several hours, did the usual death stains appear in the places where
they had lain. Soiling through opening of the bowels was also rare. There
were no signs of wounding of any kind. The faces showed no distortion.

[...] Depending on the composition of the bodies, up to three corpses were put
into one furnace muffle. The duration of the cremation was also determined by
the composition of the bodies. It lasted on average 20 minutes. As previously
stated, Crematoria I and II could cremate about 2,000 bodies in 24 hours;
more was not possible without causing damage. The facilities III and IV
should have been able to cremate 1,500 bodies in 24 hours; as far as I know,
these figures were never attained. ”

The last two pages of the manuscript, faithfully reproduced by Bez-
winska/Czech (pp. 136f.), is omitted by Broszat, who claims that Hoss’s de¬
scription of the “role of the Jewish special units during the extermination of
the Jews” is a mere repetition of what Hoss wrote in his “autobiography.” In
addition, Hoss’s claims about the projected extermination of the Jews of Ro¬
mania, Bulgaria, the part of Greece occupied by the Italians, and Spain contain
statements that are “considered to be utterly unreliable” (Broszat 1981, Fn 1,
P- 172)

What the former commander of Auschwitz wrote about the Sonderkom-
mando is, however, not a simple repetition, but a very striking description that
sheds the worst light possible on the story’s credibility: 109

109 IfZ, Fa 13/5, p. 273; omitted by Broszat; transcribed in: Bezwinska/Czech 1984, p. 136.

148

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“They carried out their grisly task with obstinate indifference. Their one ob¬
ject was to finish the work as quickly as possible so that they could have a
longer interval in which to search the clothing of the gassed victims for some¬
thing to smoke or eat. Although they were well fed and given many additional
allowances, they could often be seen shifting corpses with one hand while they
gnawed at something they held in the other. Even when they were engaged in
the most gruesome work of digging out and burning the corpses buried in the
mass graves, they never stopped eating. ”

Hoss then outlines further Judenaktionen that he claims were planned at some
point, giving preposterous projected deportation figures in the process, starting
with Hungary: 110

“On the occasion of my business trip to Eichmann at Budapest in the summer
of 1943 [sic], he disclosed to me the additionally planned Jewish operations.

At that period of time, a little more than 200,000 Jews from the Carpathian-
Ukraine had been arrested and, housed in brickyards, were awaiting their
transport to Auschwitz.

From Hungary, Eichmann expected about 3 million Jews according to the es¬
timate of the Hungarian police, who had also carried out the arrests.

The arrests and transportation should have been carried out in 1943, but be¬
cause of the Hungarian government's political difficulties, the date was re¬
peatedly postponed.

In particular the Hungarian army, or rather the senior officers, were opposed
to the extradition of these people and gave most of the male Jew’s a refuge in
the labour companies of the front-line divisions, thus keeping them out of the
clutches of the police. When in the autumn of 1944, an action was started in
Budapest itself, the only male Jews left were the old and the sick.

Altogether there were probably not more than half a million Jews transported
out of Hungary. ”

As for the other countries, I only quote passages where Hoss indicates a fig¬
ure:

“The next country on the list was Rumania. According to the reports from his
representative in Bucharest, Eichmann expected to get about 4,000,000 Jews
from there. [...]

In the meantime, Bulgaria was to follow with an estimated two and a half mil¬
lion Jew’s. The authorities there were agreeable to the transport, but wanted to
wait on the results of the negotiations with Rumania. [...]

The course taken by the war destroyed these plans and saved the lives of mil¬
lions of Jews. ”

110 IfZ, Fa 13/5, pp. 274f; transcribed in: Bezwinska/Czech 1984, pp. 136f.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

149

2.2. “Meine Psyche. Werden, Leben und Erleben”

At the end of this 114-page manuscript, Hoss explains why he wrote this
text: 111

“I would never have condescended to such a self-renunciation, to the revela¬
tion of my most secret me, had / not been met with such benevolence, with such
an understanding that disarmed me, which I could never ever have expected. I
owe it to this humane understanding to contribute everything I can in order to
elucidate unclarified connections as far as / possibly can. ”

This text starts and carries on for a long time with personal remarks that are
only of very marginal value for this study. There are, in my eyes, only a few
remarks worth mentioning, one of which is Hoss’s assurance of having stud¬
ied some English while in a prison in Brandenburg between 1924 and 1928 (p.
49):

“In my spare time I diligently learned English; I had ordered textbooks, and
later / had them send me a steady supply of English books and magazines, and
so / learned this language without any help within roughly a year. ”

No more is known about this, which is to say that this does not necessarily
mean that Hoss could understand English well in 1946. 112

In addition, the information given by Hoss that at the Sachsenhausen Camp
“special inmates” (“ Sonderhaftlinge ”) “were to be especially lodged”
(“gesondert unterzubringen waren ”), meaning that they “were accommodated
in a special block inside the camp” and were subjected to a “special treat¬
ment,” is evidently of value to explain similar expressions used in documents
produced by the Auschwitz camp administration (p. 82). 113

A transcript of the manuscript beginning with the section “That’s how I
became commandant of the newly to-be-erected Auschwitz quarantine camp,”
and going until the very end, is located in the Yad Vashem Archives. 114 This
is, historically speaking, the most important part.

With regard to Himmler’s visit to Auschwitz during March 1941, Hoss
writes (pp. 98f.; pp. 45f.):

111 Broszat 1981, p. 156; all subsequent page numbers refer to this, unless stated otherwise; the sec¬
ond page number(s) point(s) to the (different) published English translation in Bezwinska/Czech
1984, which contains only the passages dealing with Hoss’s time at Auschwitz.

112 Translator’s remark: Learning a different language using written material enables only the reading
of texts in that language, and typically only simpler texts. It cannot prepare anyone to understand
the spoken language.

113 For instance, the radio message by SS Obersturmfiihrer Schwarz of March 15, 1943 with the sub¬
ject “Judentransporte aus Berlin”. AGK, NTN, 94, p. 174: “Gesondert wurden 126 Manner u. 474
Frauen u. Kinder untergebracht.”

114 YVA, 0.51/41.1. In Broszat’s edition (p. 90), this section has the headline “ Kommandant von
Auschwitz (1940-1943).“

150

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

armaments industry. If possible, every prisoner was to become an armaments
worker. Every commander had to make his camp serve this purpose ruthlessly.
According to the RFSS, Auschwitz was to become a huge center of inmate ar¬
maments industry. His pronouncements during his visit in March 1941 were
clear enough in this respect. The camp for 100,000 prisoners of war, the ex¬
pansion of the old camp for 30,000 prisoners, providing 10,000 prisoners for
Buna spoke clearly enough to this end. ”

A few pages further down, Hoss writes about Gypsies (p. 109; pp. 65f.):

“Then there was the visit by the RFSS in July 1942. / showed him the Gypsy
camp in detail. He looked at everything thoroughly, saw the crowded bar¬
racks, the insufficient hygienic conditions, the fully occupied hospital bar¬
racks, saw those sick with epidemic diseases, saw the childhood disease Noma,
[...]. He learned about the mortality figures which, compared to the entire
camp, were still relatively low. But child mortality was extremely high. [...] He
saw everything exactly and truthfully — and gave us the order to exterminate
them, after those fit to work had been selected, as with the Jews. [...] This took
two years. The Gypsies fit for labor were transferred to other camps. As of
August 1944, some 4,000 Gypsies remained there who had to go into the gas
chambers. ”

For their alleged gassing, the Gypsies were brought “toward Crematorium I
[II]” (p. 109; p. 66).

In a subsequent elaboration on the Jewish detainees, Hoss explains (p. 114;
P- 73):

“When the RFSS altered his original order from 1941 to exterminate the Jews,
according to which all Jew’s had to be exterminated without exception, to the
effect that those fit for work had to be deployed in the armaments industry,
Auschwitz became a Jewish camp, a collection [i.e. concentration] camp for
Jews of a hitherto unknown magnitude. ”

In this context, he adds (p. 118; pp. 79f.):

“Right from the start of the transports of Jews from Slovakia, it [the camp]
was chock-full up to the rooflines with in a few days. ”

Later he returns to Himmler’s alleged order (p. 124; pp. 89f.):

“Following the will of the RFSS, Auschwitz became the largest extermination
facility of humans ever. When, in the summer of 1941, he personally ordered
me to prepare a place for this mass extermination at Auschwitz and to carry
out this extermination, / could in no way imagine the magnitude and the re¬
percussions. ”

He then reveals his blind obedience of yore (p. 124; p. 90):

“ When the Fiihrer himself had ordered the final solution of the Jewish ques¬
tion, ’ there was no room for an old national socialist to reflect on this, and
even less so for an SS leader. Fiihrer command, we follow ’ was by no means
an empty phrase, not a mere slogan for us. ”

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

151

Hoss then outlines the alleged genesis of the claimed extermination at Ausch¬
witz (p. 126; pp. 9If.):

“Yet before the mass extermination of the Jews began, the Russian politruks
and political commissioners were liquidated in almost all concentration camps
in 1941/42. Following a secret decree of the Fiihrer, the Russian politruks and
political commissioners were selected by special commandos of the Gestapo in
all PoW camps. The persons selected that way were transferred to the nearest
concentration camp for liquidation. [...] The political functionaries of the Red
Army selected that way were also sent to Auschwitz for liquidation. The first
small transports were shot by execution units of the troops. During a business
trip, my deputy, leader of the protective custody camp Fritzsch, had used gas
for the killing. This was the hydrogen cyanide preparation Cyclon B, which
was being used for pest control on a regular basis in the camp, and was thus
in stock. On my return, he reported this to me, and for the next transport, this
gas was again used. The gassing was carried out in the prison cells of Block
11. I myself watched the killing, protected by a gas mask. Death occurred in
the cram-packed cells immediately after insertion. Only a brief, almost suffo¬
cated scream, and it was already over. I did not really become aware of this
first gassing of human beings; perhaps I was too impressed by the whole pro¬
cess. The gassing of 900 Russians in the old crematorium, which took place
soon afterwards, was much more memorable to me, because the use of Block
11 caused too many inconveniences. Still during the unloading [of the Rus¬
sians], several holes were simply knocked through the morgue’s soil-and-
concrete roof. The Russians had to undress in the vestibule, and they all went
calmly into the morgue, as they were told that they would be deloused there.
The whole transport fitted exactly into the morgue. The door was locked, and
the gas was poured through the openings. How long this killing lasted, I do not
know. During the insertion, some screamed ‘gas, ’ which triggered a powerful
roar and a shoving toward the two doors. But they withstood the pressure. -
Only after several hours, it was opened and ventilated. ”

Hoss then says that this gassing was providential (p. 127; p. 94):

“But I must say frankly that this gassing had a calming effect on me, since the
mass extermination of the Jews had to be commenced in the foreseeable future,
and neither Eichmann nor I had figured out how to kill these expected masses.
It was to happen by gas, but how and what kind of gas? Now we had discov¬
ered the gas and the process. ”

Hoss then moves on to describe the first “gassing” at “Bunker I” (pp. 127f.;
pp. 95f.):

“In the spring of 1942, the first transports of Jews from Upper Silesia arrived,
all of which were to be exterminated. They were led from the ramp across the
meadows of the later Construction Section II to the farmstead — Bunker I.
Aumeier, Palitzsch, and a few’ block leaders escorted them, talking to them as
innocuously as possible, asking about professions and skills in order to de-

152

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

ceive them. Having arrived at the farmstead, they had to undress. In fact, they
initially went calmly into the rooms where they were to be disinfected until
some of them got suspicious, talking of suffocation, of annihilation. A kind of
panic ensued immediately. But those still standing outside were quickly driven
into the chambers, and [the doors] screwed shut. ”

This description contains many personal references, as if Hoss had often been
present during the claimed gassings in “Bunker 1”: “I have also observed that
women...”; “Once a woman walked up close to me while passing by...”; “An
old man whispered to me while walking by ...”; “A young woman caught my
eye, ...”; “I also experience^] that a woman...” (pp. 128f.; pp. 98-100). The
anecdotes thusly “remembered” by the former commander of Auschwitz are
typical examples of resistance propaganda. These pathetic stories abound in
Hoss’s Aufzeichnungen. Other examples follow shortly thereafter:

“From the gas room, a woman once shouted an address of a Jewish family to
the Unterfiihrer. A man, judging by his clothes and manners form the best cir¬
cumstances, gave me a slip of paper while undressing which contained a list of
addresses of Dutch families who were hiding Jews. ” (p. 130; p. 101)

And this one on page 131 (p. 102):

“One case I experienced myself. While pulling out the corpses from a chamber
of the open-air facility, one member of the Sonderkommando suddenly hesitat¬
ed, stood still for a moment as if spellbound, but then moved on with the
corpse together with his comcrades. I asked the Kapo what was going on with
him. He noted that the hesitating Jew had discovered his wife among the
corpses. ”

Later on, Hoss returns to the first mass transport:

“In the spring of1942, hundreds offlowering people, under the flowering fruit
trees of the farmstead, went mostly unsuspectingly to their death in the gas
chambers. ”

Already then, “the selection process at the ramp” took place as well as “the
further separation of those fit for work” (p. 129; p. 100).

While outlining the life of the members of the so-called Sonderkommando,
Hoss mentions their tasks (p. 130; p. 102):

“Then the extraction of the corpses from the chambers, removal of gold teeth,
cutting of hair, dragging to the pits, pouring back the accumulated fat, poking
around in the mountains of burning corpses in order to supply air. [...] They
were eating or smoking while dragging corpses. ”

As is apparent from the terms used, the final words - “dragging corpses” - re¬
fer to dragging them to the cremation pits (at that time the crematoria had not
yet been built), not to their removal from the “gas chambers” (of the bunkers),
so the Sonderkommando men would have been able to carry out this operation
while eating or smoking without wearing a gas mask.

Regarding his duties, however, Hoss states (p. 132; p. 104):

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

153

“I had to watch all the procedures. Whether day or night, I had to watch the
carrying, the burning of the corpses, had to watch for hours the prying out of
teeth, the cutting of hair, all these atrocious things. I had to stand for hours
even at the horrible excavation of the mass graves which spread a sinister
stench, and at the burning. I also had to watch death itself through the peep¬
hole of the gas chamber, because the doctors drew my attention to it. ”

A few lines later, Hoss writes (p. 132; pp. 104f.):

“The RFSS sent various party and SS leaders to Auschwitz in order that they
would take a look at the extermination of the Jews. ”

Everyone was disturbed at the sight of this ‘“final solution of the Jewish ques¬
tion’” (p. 132; p. 105).

What did Hoss’s wife kn ow about his extermination activity? Apparently
nothing (pp. 133f.;pp. 106, 108):

“My wife could not understand my gloomy moods, blaming trouble at work for
them. [...] But what did my wife know about the things that oppressed me — she
never found out about them. ”

The last pages of this text deal with Hoss as head of Office Group DI of the
WVHA. He writes about the alleged conflicts between this office and the
RSHA in dealing with the Jewish question (pp. 138fi):

“The [position of the] Office for Jewish Issues — Eichmann/Gunther — was un¬
equivocally clear. According to the RFSS’s order of summer of 1941, all Jews
were to be annihilated. The RSHA raised the most serious concerns when the
RFSS, on Pohl’s proposal, ordered the selection of those fit for work. The
RSHA has always been for the complete elimination of the Jews; it saw in eve¬
ry new labor camp, in eveiy new set of a thousand Jews fit for work a danger
of liberation, that they would remain alive through whatever circumstances.
Pretty much no other department had a higher interest in the rise of the Jews ’
death rates than the RSHA, the Office for Jewish Issues. Pohl, on the other
hand, had been ordered by the RFSS to deploy as many prisoners as possible
in armaments production. He therefore attached the greatest importance to the
admission of as many prisoners as possible, and thus also as many Jew’s fit for
work as possible from the transports destined for annihilation. He also at¬
tached the greatest importance to the preservation of these workers, albeit
with little success. RSHA and WVHA therefore had exactly opposite points of
view. But Pohl seemed stronger, for behind him stood the RFSS, demanding
with increasing urgency prisoners for the armaments industries, forced by his
promises to the Fiihrer. On the other hand, the RFSS also wanted to annihilate
as many Jews as possible.

Starting in 1941, when Pohl took over the concentration camps, they were in¬
tegrated into the armaments program of the RFSS. The harder the war be¬
came, the more ruthlessly the RFSS demanded the prisoners ’ deployment. The
majority of the prisoners, however, were of eastern descent, and later the
Jews. They were sacrificed mainly for armaments production. The concentra-

154

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

tion camps were caught between the RSHA and the WVHA. The RSHA sup¬
plied the prisoners with the ultimate goal of extermination; it didn't matter
whether immediately by executions or by the gas chamber, or a little more
slowly by the epidemics (caused by the conditions in the concentration camps
which had become untenable, and which were not remedied on purpose). The
WVHA wanted to maintain the prisoners for the war effort. ”

I have already mentioned the essential aspects of Hoss’s statement on his ex¬
tradition to Poland. In this context, he also elaborates on other noteworthy top¬
ics, such as those of “atrocities” committed in concentration camps (pp.
15 3 f.):

“I myself never approved of them. I myself have never mistreated or killed a
prisoner. I also have never tolerated mistreatments on the part of my subordi¬
nates. If I must hear now in the course of the investigation what tremendous
cruelties have occurred in Auschwitz and in other camps as well, a cold chill
runs down my spine. / knew well that in Auschwitz prisoners were mistreated
by the SS, by civilian employees, and not least by their own fellow inmates. I
have fought against this with all means at my disposal. I could not stop it. [...]
But I was never cruel — never did / let myself get carried away to mistreat¬
ments. A lot happened at Auschwitz, supposedly in my name, on my behalf, at
my orders, of which / neither knew anything nor did I tolerate or endorse it.
But all this happened at Auschwitz, and / am responsible for it. ”

The text ends with the inevitable certificate of truthfulness by Hoss writing
that he penned it all down “truthfully and realistically as I saw it, as I experi¬
enced it” (p. 154).

2.3. SS Personality Profiles

As I mentioned earlier, Hoss wrote 33 other texts, most of which were devoted
to SS personalities with whom he had been in contact. I only consider here the
profiles of the most important individuals: Himmler, Pohl and Eichmann. In
Part Two, I will critically analyze in an appropriate context those of Fritzsch,
Palitzsch, Bischoff, Wirths, Grawitz and Globocnik as well as the text about
the Organization Schmelt.

2.3.1. Reichsfiihrer-SS Heinrich Himmler

Broszat only reproduced the text devoted to Himmler, while at once omitting
the first nine pages (p. 172, Fn 2). Transcriptions of these handwritten texts,
together with several others, can be found in Volume 21 of the files of the
Hoss Trial. The first pages cover the history of National Socialism from the
early 1920s to the alleged exterminations. Hoss tells about euthanasia (the vic¬
tims were killed “with carbon monoxide which was introduced through show¬
er installations in bath rooms”) and of “Operation Reinhardt,” although with¬
out using that term (Hoss Trial, Vol. 21, p. 200):

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

155

“An appointee of the Fiihrer’s Chancellery headed the Jewish extermination
centers in the East, which were under the direction of Globocznik. ”

Hoss presents a list of Himmler’s alleged conflicting decisions, especially
with regard to detainees, which make him appear superficial and fickle (“Thus
his views fluctuate,” pp. 172f.). In reality, these were decisions taken succes¬
sively based on the developments and needs of the war.

Hoss extensively describes Himmler’s frantic activity to provide as many
prisoners as possible for the armaments industries.

During Himmler’s first visit to Auschwitz on March 1, 1941, he ordered,
among other things, “the expansion of the PoW Camp for 100,000 detainees”
and the enlargement of the Main Camp to a capacity of 30,000 detainees (pp.
179f.). Hoss’s alleged summoning to Berlin is described by him in different
terms than usual (p. 181):

“Summer 1941. Himmler had me come to Berlin to give me the order, so dis¬
astrous and so harsh, for the mass extermination of the Jews from almost the
whole of Europe, as a result of which the Auschwitz Concentration Camp be¬
came the largest extermination center of history [and which 115 ] also had as a
consequence — due to the selection and piling up of the Jew’s fit for work, and
the catastrophic overcrowding caused thereby, with the corresponding accom¬
panying symptoms — that thousands and thousands of non-Jews who were to
remain alive had to die of diseases and epidemics caused by poor housing, in¬
sufficient food, inadequate clothing, and the lack of any considerable hygienic
facilities. Only and exclusively Himmler bears the blame for this, who rejected
all the reports on these conditions which had been forwarded to him repeated¬
ly by all the relevant departments — [who] did not remedy the cause and also
did not provide any redress. ”

During his second and last visit in July 1942, Himmler inspected the Birkenau
Camp, where he inspected the “Gypsy section” and “saw the child killer No¬
ma.”

“After visiting Birkenau, he observed the entire extermination procedure of a
transport of Jews that had just arrived. ” (p. 182)

The next day, Himmler ordered Hoss (p. 184):

“The Gypsies are to be exterminated. The Jews unfit for work are to be exter¬
minatedjust as ruthlessly. ”

2.3.2. SS Obergruppenfiihrer Oswald Pohl 116

On his own initiative, Pohl started “almost all economic SS enterprises”; his
main task was right from the start “to gradually make the SS absolutely inde-

115 The trial transcript has a full stop here: “der Geschichte wurde. Ausserdem zur Folge hatte,” Hoss
Trial, Vol. 21, p. 212.

116 Der Chef des SS-Wirtschafts- u. Verwaltungs-Hauptamtes (The Head of the SS Economics and
Administrative Main Office) SS-Obergruppenfiihrer Oswald Pohl. Hoss Trial, Vol. 21, pp. 221 -
229.

156

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

pendent from state and party [Partei] by way of SS-owned economic enter¬
prises in order to ensure that the RF-SS has the necessary freedom of action in
all his plannings.” Hoss explains that

“the RFSS needed enormous funds already for his research and experimental
facilities. Pohl always procured them. The RFSS was very generous in grant¬
ing money for special purposes; Pohl financed everything. ”

As for the treatment of detainees,

“Pohl opined that an inmate who is well accomodated and warm, sufficiently
fed and clothed, works diligently on his own accord, and that punishments
have to be used only in extreme cases. ”

When Pohl took over the concentration camps, he immediately began “to re¬
form the camps according to his views.” To this end, he also removed from
their position those camp commanders who in his opinion did not comply with
his directives, which were:

“decent treatment of the inmates, elimination of any arbitrary treatment by
subordinate SS members, improvement of provisioning options, creation of
warm clothing for the cold season, adequate accommodation and improvement
of all hygienic facilities. All these improvements were meant to keep the de¬
tainees in a physical condition in which they are able to do the required
amount of work. ”

The war, adds Hoss, posed serious obstacles to the implementation of these di¬
rectives. Pohl often made unannounced inspections of the labor camps and,
when he found abuses, punished the offenders with no hesitation. He was “the
most willing and obedient executor of all of RFSS Heinrich Himmler’s wishes
and plans.”

Strangely, Hoss does not mention Pohl’s two visits to Auschwitz on Sep¬
tember 23, 1942, and July 16, 1944.

2.3.3. SS Obersturmbannfiihrer Adolf Eichmann

Since I do not have the German original text describing Eichmann, I have to
rely on the published English and Polish translations mentioned earlier.

The information contained in this text regarding Auschwitz and the rela¬
tionship between Eichmann and Hoss are repetitive in nature and do not con¬
tain anything new: 117

“I got to know him after I received the order from Himmler to exterminate the
Jews. After that he came to Auschwitz to discuss all the details of the action to
exterminate the Jews. [...] Only Eichmann was in a position to furnish any in¬
formation concerning the numbers. [...] On Pohl’s orders, I was in Budapest
three times in order to determine the approximate expected numbers of able-
bodied workers. ”

117 Paskuly, pp. 240f.; Glowna Komisja... 1956, pp. 326f.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

157

Hoss attributes to Eichmann a radical conception of the “final solution of the
Jewish question”: 118

“Eichmann was firmly convinced that if it were possible to destroy the biolog¬
ical foundation of Judaism by the process of total extermination, Judaism
would never survive the blow, since then assimilated Jews of the West, includ¬
ing America, were not in a position to catch up to this tremendous loss of
blood, nor did they want to. It was not expected that these Jews would have
more than the average number of children. ”

3. The Warsaw Trial

On February 21, 1947, Hoss was transferred to protective custody in the Mo-
kotow Prison, Warsaw, where the trial against him was staged in 17 hearings
between March 11 and 29, 1947. Spectators could attend the trial by purchas¬
ing numbered tickets valid for a single day (see Document 16). The verdict
was announced on April 2. The former commander of Auschwitz was tried in
front of the Supreme National Tribunal (Najwyzszy Tribunal Narodowy), es¬
tablished by decree of January 22, 1946, whose jurisdiction was extended with
a subsequent decree of October 17 to encompass all war criminals who had
acted on Polish territory. The Decree of January 22 stated the following: 119
“The First President of the Supreme Court acts as President of the Supreme
National Tribunal. The judges and the prosecutors are appointed by the Prae-
sidium of the National Council on the recommendation of the Minister of Jus¬
tice from among persons possessing judicial qualifications (Article 3).

The Tribunal sits in public sessions with three professional judges and four
lay-judges. The latter are chosen from the list of lay judges compiled by the
Praesidium of the National Council from among members of Parliament. In
discharging their functions, the lay judges are independent and subordinate
only to the laws; at the trial, they have the same rights and duties as profes¬
sional judges of the Tribunal (Articles 3 to 5).

The sessions of the Tribunal are presided over by the President or by a judge
assigned by him. The votes are ascertained by the presiding judge who starts
with the youngest in age, and casts the last vote himself (Article 4).

The court consisted of Presiding Judge Alfred Eimer, assisted by two sitting
judges, Witold Kutzner and Jozef Zembaty, and four lay judges, Michal
Gwiazdowicz, Franciszek Zmijewski, Aleksander Olchowicz, Henryk Do-
browolski. The prosecution was represented by two prosecutors, Tadeusz
Cyprian and Mieczyslaw Siewierski. Two defenders were assigned to Hoss,

118 Paskuly, p. 242.

119 The legal and procedural bases of the trial are described in a special Annex (“Polish law, concern¬
ing trials of war criminals”) in: United Nations..., Vol. 7, pp. 82-97. The quoted text is on p. 92.
This volume also contains a very concise summary of the trial (pp. 11-26). See also Ancel 1947.

158

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Tadeusz Ostaszewski and Franciszek Umbreit. There were 206 witnesses, all
for the prosecution. The court also appointed as expert witnesses: Prof. Roman
Dawidowski, Prof. Jan Olbrycht, Dr. Jan Zygmunt Robel, Dr. Kowalski and
Dr. Nachman Blumental.

The indictment dated February 11, 1947 consisted of just three pages and
charged Floss with belonging to the National Socialist Party and to the SS,
both of which had been declared criminal organizations during the Nuremberg
IMT (Point I), and the perpetration of crimes as commander of the Auschwitz
Camp (Point II); as such he was accused of having

“deprived of their life, among the above-mentioned persons [those deported to
Auschwitz]:

a) about 300,000 persons interned in the camp as registered detainees accord¬
ing to the camp’s documentation;

b) circa 4,000,000 persons, mainly Jews, brought to the camp by transports
from various European countries for immediate extermination, and therefore
not resulting in any camp records;

c) circa 12,000 Soviet PoWs at the concentration camp in violation of interna¬
tional law,

by asphyxiation in gas chambers installed in the camp, by shooting, in individ¬
ual cases by hanging, by lethal injections of phenol, or by medical experiments
that caused death, by systematic and gradual starvation, by creating particu¬
lar living conditions in the camp that caused a general mortality, by excessive
workloads of detainees, and by the bestial treatment of detainees by the camp
garrison, which resulted in immediate death or serious bodily injwy. ”

The other two points concerned the mistreatment of detainees and the looting
of their possessions. 120

Hoss was questioned for a long time during the first and second hearings
(March 11 and 12, 1947), interrupted only to answer questions about witness
statements. During the first hearing, 121 after listening to the indictment, he
stated (p. 26):

“I was not responsible for eveiything that happened at Auschwitz. In any case,
the figures mentioned do not correspond to the truth. In my case it doesn t
matter whether 6, 5 or 1 million people perished, but if this trial is to prove the
truth about Auschwitz, it is also necessary to submit these figures to an exact
revision. Personally, with regard to the exact figures, I have no data, no basis.
All bases on this point [the documents] were destroyed. The only person in the
German Reich who generally knew the definitive figures of the exterminations
and who guarded them was the head of the Office for Jewish Matters at the

120 Hoss Trial, “Akt oskarzenia,” Warsaw, February 11, 1947, AGK, NTN, 104, pp. 2-4. See Docu¬
ment 17. United Nations..., Vol. 7, pp. 1 If., contains an extract of the translation of the indict¬
ment, which simplifies the cumbersome bureaucratic language of the Polish text.

121 See Document 18. Beginning of the interrogation of R. Hoss. AGK, NTN, 105, p. 6; all subse¬
quent page numbers from there, unless stated otherwise.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

159

Reich Security Main Office, Obersturmbannfuhrer Eichmann. That would be
all. ”

The Auschwitz camp was originally intended as a transit camp for 10,000
Poles of the General Government and Czechoslovakia who were then to be
transferred to the Reich. It was a quarantine center for the prevention of epi¬
demics. At the end of November 1940, Himmler ordered the transformation of
the quarantine camp into a permanent concentration camp (pp. 36, 42). In
March 1941, Himmler visited Auschwitz. On that occasion, he ordered the
expansion of the concentration camp to accommodate 35,000 detainees and
the building of a new camp at Birkenau for 100,000 prisoners of war. Hoss
was also required to provide 10,000 detainees for the construction of an I.G.
Farbenindustrie plant (pp. 46-49).

“On October 1, 1941, a new head of the Construction Office arrived, Bis-
choj[T\, with the order to build a camp for 200,000 prisoners of war. ”

A large number of prisoners of war transferred to Auschwitz from the
Lamsdorf Camp also participated in the construction (p. 51). In the winter of
1941-1942, the garrison consisted of four companies with a total strength of
600 soldiers, and another 180 belonged to the headquarters (page 54). On
Himmler’s order, work lasted 12 hours a day. Hoss described the procedure
for receiving detainees at the camp: their classification by skill, assignment of
progressive numbers, dressing, medical examination, quarantining, tattooing
the inmate number, showering, lodging as well as provisioning. In Birkenau,
the so-called horse-stable barracks were meant to house 400-500 inmates, but
could contain up to 800-1,000 (pp. 58-64). New inmates spent six to eight
weeks in quarantine at Birkenau. Sick inmates were sent to the inmate infir¬
mary (pp. 68fi).

Asked whether Himmler had visited Auschwitz again, Hoss replied that
this happened in June - in fact in July - 1942. But what did Himmler say and
what was the physical state of the detainees? During his two-day visit, Hoss
replied, Himmler had observed the situation in Auschwitz and in the Buna
camp (Monowitz) and also “the unsustainable conditions that prevailed at
Birkenau in the so-called Gypsy Camp” (p. 93). Shortly afterwards Hoss add¬
ed:

“Regarding the conditions at the Gypsy Camp, which were particularly cata¬
strophic, [Himmler] told me very severely: ‘You have to exterminate them im¬
mediately. ’[...]”

The interrogation continued as follows (pp. 95-102):

“President: The defendant stated that [Himmler] ordered the ‘Gypsies ’ to be
exterminated. What does the defendant mean by the term ‘exterminate ’?
Defendant: It means killing them with gas.

President: At that time did the crematoria already exist?

160

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Defendant: No, at that time the crematoria did not yet exist; there were only
the so-called bunkers, that is, provisional installations.

President: Did the defendant cany out Himmler’s order?

Defendant: I could not carry it out. After receiving the order, I also thought
that his order regarding the arrest of the Gypsies by the criminal police office
aimed at something different [that is, had a purpose different than extermina¬
tion], and there were many Gypsies in the camp who, according to the direc¬
tives, should not have been in this camp in the first place. When I told him this,
he told me that the Reich’s criminal police had to cariy out a ‘purging ’ opera¬
tion immediately. Regarding persons of Gypsy ethnicity who were mistakenly
interned at the camp, it was difficult to transfer them, and this order could on¬
ly be executed at the end of 1944. At the time there were still about 4,000 per¬
sons of Gypsy ethnicity [in the camp], who were then completely exterminated.
Most of them [the others] had already been released from detention or had
been transferred to other camps.

President: The defendant stated that at that time the crematoria did not yet ex¬
ist. When were they built?

Defendant: We started building these crematoria in the fall of1942.

President: Can the witness say how they looked, how these crematoria were
built and how many were there?

Defendant: Four crematoria were built, two of which were larger and two of
medium size.

President: The defendant stated that there were five crematoria, the first of
which was inactive.

Defendant: The fifth or first crematorium was in the old Auschwitz camp.
President: That was why it was inactive.

Defendant: The first crematorium was not enough for the number of corpses in
the camp, and for this reason all those who died at Birkenau were buried in
mass graves. Until the fall of 1942, even those who early on had been gassed
in the bunkers were buried in this way. In these mass graves — now I remember
exactly the number - 107,000 people were buried within seven weeks. They
were those who had died inside the camp, and hence the transports that were
exterminated in these early bunkers. Until that time, until the exhumation in
early fall of 1942, cremations had not yet been carried out. Only then, at this
time, those who had just been gassed were cremated together with those who
had been exhumed from the mass graves.

President: Who gave the order about Birkenau?

Defendant: It was personally given by Himmler in the summer of 1942. He
personally gave me the extermination order.

President: Regarding this extermination order, did Himmler give a figure, how
many people had to be exterminated?

Defendant: No, at this time when he gave me that order, he told me that he had
no definitive figures yet, that I would learn all the details from Eichmann, then

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

161

in charge of the Jewish questions at the Reich Office. At that time, the survey
was not yet under way.

President: Did the defendant speak with Eichmann on this subject?

Defendant: A few days after / received this order, Eichmann came to me in
Auschwitz and gave me the precise details of the project.

President: What details did he provide about the project?

Defendant: He ordered his senior staff to establish the number of Jews present
in each country, furthermore from which territory, more or less, the arrival of
Jewish transports from these countries had to be expected, and to clarify the
ways in which these masses had to be exterminated.

President: Did Eichmann give rough figures?

Defendant: At the time Eichmann talked about a figure of about 6-7 million
people. But he did not know anything about when these transports would take
place.

President: When Eichmann talked about this, did he have in mind to extermi¬
nate those people in Auschwitz?

Defendant: Most of those people. At that time, he did not tell me about the ex¬
termination site; / did not know it, I only learned it later, but he said that for
railway and technical reasons it was impossible to send a large number of
people to the extermination centers in the East, and for this reason, consider¬
ing the logistics, the Reichsfuhrer had chosen Auschwitz as the extermination
site.

President: The defendant stated that until [that] time four crematoria were
built?

Defendant: Yes.

President: According to the defendant’s estimate, how many people could be
cremated each day in these four crematoria?

Defendant: In the two large crematoria, namely numbers 2 and 3 according to
the construction project, if we call the old crematorium of Auschwitz Cremato¬
rium No. 1, in these two large crematoria no more than 2,000people could be
cremated within 24 hours in each crematorium /agitation in the audience/. [...]
President: How many people could the crematoria cremate altogether per day
in the defendant's judgment?

Defendant: All crematoria, including Bunkers 2, that is to say, the outdoor fa¬
cility where cremations were carried out in pits, could cremate 10,000 people
in one day, within 24 hours. That was the maximum. Moreover, this was
reached only once, when in 1943 [sic] on a single day, hence within 24 hours,
five transports arrived. Effectively, there never were 10,000 people. As a rule
during this action, two transports per day arrived. At first Eichmann tried to
send three trains to Auschwitz per day, and he repeatedly sent three trans¬
ports, but usually only two trains arrived per day.

President: How many people were there in these two trains?

162

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Defendant: Based on the Reich’s railway requests, such a freight train should
not have contained more than 2,000 people. There were trains that had 2,200
people, even 2,500 people. On average, they carried 2,000 people.

President: Does the defendant recall times when the crematoria were running
day and night without interruption?

Defendant: They were always in operation day and night when these opera¬
tions were under way. During these operations, which lasted 4, 6 and 8 weeks,
the crematoria operated without interruption. However, some individual
crematoriathat had to be repaired were eliminated. As a result, it was neces¬
sary to resort to a simpler way of eliminating the corpses, that is, they burned
the corpses outdoors instead.

President: How did the reception of such an arriving transport unfold? Was it
sent directly to the crematorium?

Defendant: Himmler’s original order stated: ‘All Jews transported to Ausch¬
witz must be exterminated. ’ Because of Pohl’s arguments, this order was re¬
voked because robust workers were needed for the war industry, and so in the
spring of 1942 it was ordered that people fit for work had to be selected from
these transports.

President: Were people of other nationalities also cremated in these cremato¬
ria, not just Jews?

Defendant: No, only those who died in the camp.

President: And was there a selection of sick people who were gassed and cre¬
mated in the crematoria?

Defendant: Yes. The Reichsfiiher demanded that every person unfit for work
who did not become fit for work within four weeks was to be killed.

President: What was the method of killing, only by gassing?

Defendant: By gassing and injections.

President: What kind of injections?

Defendant: Of phenol, Evipan and gasoline. / do not know any other methods,
I do not remember.

President: How many people were killed this way?

Defendant: / do not know how many.

President: Who administered these injections?

Defendant: They were supposed to be administered by SS doctors, but they left
the execution to lower-rank nurses.

President: Did the defendant happen to see children in the camp?

Defendant: Yes.

President. What happened with these children?

Defendant: There were two categories of children, the children of the Gypsy
Camp, who were admitted together with the Gypsies, and others who arrived
with several transports of families from the Russian territories, but this was
only partial [uncommon]. Initially, children were transferred to Lodz, to the
local children’s camps. Then, when these camps were full, some of these chil¬
dren had to stay in Auschwitz. Most of these children died because they could

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

163

not endure the conditions of the camp in any way, as the department of nutri¬
tion refused any [additional] food for children in the camp.

President: So, these children also went into the crematoria?

Defendant: No, they were not gassed.

President: What happened to them?

Defendant: Those who died in the camp of natural causes were cremated.
President: And weren ’t injections also administered to these children?
Defendant. No, / did not hear that. ”

Hoss then stated that he had left the Auschwitz Camp in November 1943, but
had returned for three months in the summer of 1944 “to carry out the second
great extermination of the Jews originating from Hungary.” Coipse cremation
continued independent of this action “until the revocation of this extermina¬
tion order at the end of October 1944. Then the Reichsfuhrer interrupted the
extermination of the Jews” (pp. 102-104).

On the circumstances of that order, Hoss stated:

“ When this happened, that is, when the order arrived that it was forbidden to
kill Jews, / was sent by Obergruppenfiihrer Pohl to the Reich Security Main
Office, to Gruppenfiihrer Muller, head of the Gestapo and at the same time
Kaltenbrunner’s deputy, to learn from him why this order had been issued.
Muller could not give me any information on this and directed me to Eich-
mann, who was negotiating with a certain Becher in Switzerland and Turkey.
For this reason, I was sent to Budapest to ascertain whether the extermination
operation of the Jews had been suspended only temporarily [or] whether it was
of a terminal nature, and to learn about the reason [of the revocation] of the
extermination order of the Jews. ”

Becher was negotiating in Switzerland and Turkey for the release of Jews in
exchange for war materials; the Jews demanded that the extermination be ter¬
minated, and that was the reason for Hi mm ler’s order (pp. 103f.).

The president asked Hoss whether he knew, if only roughly, the number of
victims. Hoss replied (p. 106):

“As far as I remember, based on the number of large transports, of the great
operations, I could estimate it to a million and a half. The figure of two million
and a half / mentioned in Nuremberg is based on Eichmann’s assertions, who
had given this figure to the head of the Inspectorate of the Concentration
Camps Glucks in April 1945, just before the collapse of the Reich. ”

The interrogation continued the next day, during the trial’s second hearing.
Prosecutor Cyprian asked the defendant to report on the order of the “ Vernich-
tiingsaktion” (extermination operation) given to him by Himmler (pp. 1 OS-
113):

“Defendant: When did I receive this order?

Attorney Cyprian: Yes, there was a conversation in the summer of 1941.

164

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Defendant: In the summer of 1941, I cannot remember the date. Himmler per¬
sonally ordered me to come to Berlin to his office, and he told me the follow¬
ing: ‘The Fiihrer has ordered the final solution of the Jewish question. We, the
SS, must carry ; it out. The existing extermination sites will not be able to anni¬
hilate this upcoming mass of people. I have chosen Auschwitz for this purpose
because: 1) Auschwitz is in a favorable position with regard to railway con¬
nections; 2) because in this vast territory it is possibile to camouflage this op¬
eration. It is a hard and difficult task. For this reason, I had planned to entrust
it to some high-ranking SS officer, but in order to avoid any complication in
the delimitation of the spheres of competence, I gave up this project, and now I
entrust this task to you. You will learn all the other details in due course from
Obersturmbannfuhrer Eichmann, who will approach you and with whom you
will have to discuss the pertinent plans in all details, and regarding the result
of this conversation, Eichmann will have to report as soon as possible. ’
Prosecutor Cyprian: Continue.

Defendant: I had to keep this order strictly secret. I was not even allowed to
report it to my immediate superior, the inspector of the concentration camps,
and he [Himmler] himself would inform every office interested in this matter in
due course. This was the essential content of that order.

Attorney Cyprian: When Eichmann eventually came to Auschwitz, what were
the plans for implementing this operation?

Defendant: Eichmann told me the following: According to his provisional re¬
search at that time, about six to seven million people from all European coun¬
tries would arrive in Auschwitz. It was not yet possible to establish exact fig¬
ures. These figures could be verified with exactitude only after a few months.
He told me that the Jews transported to the already existing extermination
sites — he did not mention these sites — were shot by special operating units or
gassed in so-called gas vehicles, that is to say, in trucks adapted to this pur¬
pose. Gassing occurred by way of engine combustion gases. However, this
killing method was inefficient and above all unreliable, so there were incon¬
veniences (‘it did not work wellj. We needed to find a way to kill these people
easily and on a vast scale. ”

Shooting, like the use of engine exhaust gases, was not a suitable method to

carry out this operation.

“We needed to find a suitable gas that would guarantee that this [operation]
would take place on a vast scale without those ‘inconveniences.' He [Eich¬
mann] took me to the camp grounds, and we found two secluded cottages of
evacuees where Bunkers 1 and 2 were set up as temporary installations. Back
then it had not yet been decided whether any larger facilities had to be built
for this purpose, or whether these existing installations were to be restruc¬
tured. All he had to do was to wait how things evolved in this first bunker. At
that time, the gas to be used to kill the people was not yet known. Eichmann

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

165

wanted to search and find a suitable gas. This was my first encounter with
Eichmann. In this way, he also reported on this to the Reichsfiihrer.

Prosecutor Cyprian: Who was first gassed?

Defendant: Russian prisoners of war.

Prosecutor Cyprian: How many and how?

Defendant: I don't know the number of these gassed Russian prisoners of war.
During a trip of mine, my deputy, Fritzsch, for the first time used the gas to kill
these people. Until then, prisoners of war transferred to the camp or those ar¬
riving there were shot. When I returned, my deputy reported to me that he had
used the gas. It was ‘Cyklon B ’ [sic], and thanks to this gas, killing people was
possible. We had a sufficient quantity of this gas, which was supplied by a
Hamburg firm, who had to use the gas to exterminate vermin in the camp. Ini¬
tially, the disinfection [disinfestation] of premises was carried out by employ¬
ees of this Hamburg firm, then paramedics were used, the so-called disinfec¬
tors. They were sent to this Hamburg firm to learn how to use this gas.
Prosecutor Cyprian: The defendant says how this very gassing operation was
carried out.

Defendant: After the first gassing in Block No. 11 — this was the prison build¬
ing — the gassings were transferred to the old crematorium, in the so-called
morgue. The gassing was done this way: holes were made through the con¬
crete ceiling, and the gas — it was a crystalline mass — was poured through
these holes into the room. I only remember one transport. 900 prisoners of
war were gassed in this way. From then on, the gassing was carried out out¬
side the camp, in Bunker 1. It was a farmhouse that had been restructured for
this purpose. There were single rooms separated by gas tight doors. There
were small openings for discharging the gas, through which gas was intro¬
duced after this room had been filled with people. It kept operating this way
when, in the spring of 1942, transports of Jews arrived from the eastern part
of Upper Silesia, the General Governorate and Germany.

Prosecutor Cyprian: At the peak of the operation, how many people were
gassed at a time?

Defendant: In all facilities or in the temporary facilities?

Prosecutor Cyprian: In all of them.

Defendant: If considering all the gas chambers of the four crematoria as well
as the outdoor facility, which existing back then but was not used, one could
gas 10,000 people within 24 hours.

Prosecutor Cyprian: How did these modern gas chambers look like?
Defendant: In the Crematoria 2 and 3, the gas chambers and undressing
rooms were located underground. The transports destined for gassing
marched right up to these facilities und got undressed in these undressing
rooms. The detainees working there told them in the language of the respective
transport that they were going to be disinfected, will be inspected to the [by a
physician], and that they had to remember exactly where they left their things,
so that they could find them again right away. Then they were led into the gas

166

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

chamber, and the gas was poured through tubes (przewody) into these rooms,
where it spread out immediately causing death.

Prosecutor Cyprian: How much was needed to gas these people?

Defendant: It depended on the weather, from the strength of gas; it was always
different, because the gas components were not always the same, and it de¬
pended on the number of people present in these gas chambers.

Prosecutor Cyprian: Could all corpses be cremated on the same day [of the
gassing]?

Defendant: In every crematorium, one could cremate 2,000 in 24 hours.
Prosecutor Cyprian: What happened with the remaining corpses when they
gassed 10,000 [people per day]?

Defendant: 2,000 in one crematorium, but in all facilities and outdoors, one
could cremate them all.

Prosecutor Cyprian: How was the outdoor [cremation]?

Defendant: At the farmhouse, Bunker No. 2, there were pits steming from mass
graves. The corpses were pulled out of the gas chambers and cremated in
these pits.

Prosecutor Cyprian: Himmler was there?

Defendant: He was there in 1944 [sic], during his visit to Auschwitz.

Prosecutor Cyprian: What did he say about it?

Defendant: He was present during the entire operation, from undressing to
cremation; he did not say anything; he did not speak.

Prosecutor Cyprian: Was there a reception at the defendant’s?

Defendant: I did not organize any reception.

Prosecutor Cyprian: There was a friendly gathering at the defendant’s house.
Defendant: That was not by me. It was by Gauleiter Bracht. There was no
gathering at my house.

Prosecutor Cyprian: Did the people go into these chambers voluntarily or did
they have to push them in by force?

Defendant: The majority [of the people] of the transports had not the slightest
idea of what was happening. They took veiy good care of hiding what was
happening in general. The detainees employed there, the so-called special
unit, did everything to reinforce the deportees’ assumption that they merely
went to be disinfected. Only on very few, single occasions did a revolt occur.
For example, in the case of a transport from Bergen-Belsen, when the detain¬
ees knew exactly that they were going to Auschwitz to be killed, a revolt broke
out while undressing.

Prosecutor Cyprian: Can the defendant say how this revolt happened?
Defendant: They suddenly called me at home that a revolt had broken out at
Crematorium 2. I went there immediately and determined the following, name¬
ly that the SS men, who were strictly forbidden to enter the undressing room —
only inmates assigned for this purpose were allowed there — had entered this
undressing room. There, the automatic weapon had been ripped out of the SS
men’s hands; there was a wild shootout, during which an SS man was killed

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

167

and others were injured. When / arrived, there was no commander, only sub¬
ordinates who did not know what to do and wanted to enter the room and
wanted to shoot around as well. Since such a procedure was not possible be¬
cause the prisoners had damaged the electric lighting cables [and] there were
piles of objects, and in general because it was unknown how many SS men
were in the room, / ordered the doors to be closed, searchlights to be brought,
and thus, using these spotlights on all those who [were] in there, they were
pushed into the gas chamber, which was already two-thirds full of people des¬
tinedfor gassing.

Prosecutor Cyprian: How was the liquidation done?

Defendant: They were pushed into the gas chamber and were gassed. ”

Later Hoss made an important statement (p. 116):

“All the assets of the detainees to be gassed were recorded under the name of
‘Operation Reinhardt ’ and were made available to the Reich authorities. ”

Prosecutor Cyprian later moved on to the Auschwitz-bound transports (pp.

119f.):

“The defendant remembers the larger transports that were gassed?

Defendant: Yes. The larger transports were those coming from Hungary. As
far as I remember, it was in the years 1943 and 1944, altogether 400,000 peo¬
ple. They were Jewish [from] Hungary.

Prosecutor: And those from other countries?

Defendant: Slovakia 90,000, General-Gouvernement 100,000, France
110,000, The Netherlands 95,000, Belgium 20,000. Greece 65,000. These are
the figures that / remember about the largest operations that make up the to¬
tal.

Prosecutor Cyprian: Were there any more besides these operations?

Defendant: Yes, but not on that scale; they were limited operations.

Prosecutor: The defendant stated at somepoint that two and a half million
people were gassed.

Defendant: Just yesterday / said that, in the case of two and a half million, I
had this figure from Eichmann, who had given it to the inspector of the con¬
centration camps.

Prosecutor: Yes, the defendant asserted this yesterday, but at one time he testi¬
fied that in his opinion about 3 million [people] perished at Auschwitz.
Defendant: When I was at first interrogated while in the British zone, those
who interrogated me said all the time that 5, 6, 7 million people must have
been gassed there, continually bombarding me with such enormous figures;
[they insisted] that / needed to have data to determine how many were gassed,
and the commission told me [that there should have been] at least 3 million.
Under the suggestive influence of these big figures, I gave this figure of 3 mil¬
lion, but insisted repeatedly that I could not give any other figure than what I
said now, two and a half million.

168

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Prosecutor: So two and a half million was the figure Eichmann pointed out in
his report?

Defendant: Just prior to the collapse of Germany, Eichmann had been ordered
to go to Himmler and to report once more the total figures of all exterminated
Jews. At the time of that journey, he was at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp
for an inspection on behalf of Glucks; they ordered me to show up at that
meeting. When I got out of the room, Eichmann told me the number of 2 and a
half million with regard to Auschwitz. As to what has been said before, I do
not know whether this is the actual figure of Jews brought to Auschwitz for
gassing. ”

Hoss stated that there were 140,000 prisoners at Auschwitz in the fall of 1943.
Prosecutor Cyprian asked him why the Gypsies were exterminated, to which
Hoss replied: “On the occasion of his visit in 1942, Himmler ordered the ex¬
termination of these Gypsies” (pp. 122f.). When asked whether he knew that
there were other extermination camps for Jews in Poland, the defendant re¬
plied: “Yes, I know, I saw them myself, Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec.
I do not know of any others” (p. 125). Hoss knew nothing about children
thrown alive into the fire (p. 128).

Interrogated by defense attorney Ostaszewski, Hoss stated that, on his own
initiative, some SS man of the camp staff had been prosecuted in front of the
SS tribunal for mistreating prisoners. When asked about the duration of the
victims’ agony, he stated:

“As I said before, it depended on the weather, on the number of people, on
how distant these people were from the inlet point of the gas powder.

Defense Attorney Ostaszewski. But this can be established roughly. How about
the people who could be seen from the peephole?

Defendant: People standing close to the hole fell as if they had been hit by a
lightning strike; the others took between 3 to 5 and up to at most 10 minutes to
the point of loss of consciousness. One waited until they stopped moving. ”

As for the procedure of the extermination of the Jews, Hoss stated that “there
were no instructions; this developed over time” (pp. 136-139).

In subsequent hearings, Hoss was occasionally asked to respond to witness
statements. I will translate here the most significant answers.

On the alleged extermination of the Hungarian Jews, he provided further
explanations: 122

122 United Nations Archives. Security Microfilm Program , 1988, Reel No. 62. Hoss Trial, 8th Ses¬
sion, pp. 856f.; all subsequent page numbers from there, unless stated otherwise.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

169

Auschwitz, he found that Crematorium 5, which was used for open-air crema¬
tion, was out of use, and that it had not even been considered and even been
neglected to upgrade the railway siding existing at the camp. Based on this re¬
port, Reichsfiihrer Himmler ordered me personally to carry out this operation
at Auschwitz. Eichmann had provided for four transports per day in his sched¬
ule, but these could not have been processed even by upgrading all existing fa¬
cilities. For this reason, / had to go to Eichmann personally in Budapest and
cancel this arrangement. Then this issue was regulated in such a way that on
one day two trains had to leave to Auschwitz, while three trains could be sent
on every other day. / know with certainty that the program agreed upon in Bu¬
dapest with the railway authorities provided a total of 111 transports of that
kind. When the first transports arrived at Auschwitz, Eichmann also came in
person for this [to check] whether it was possible to provide for further trains,
because the Reichsfiihrer demanded that this Hungarian operation be expedit¬
ed very much. These were the facts that contributed to this. ”

Regarding the alleged gassing procedure, Hoss declared:

“/ remember that the railway station was subsequently enlarged, the railway
connection into the camp which had three tracks, and / remember that the in¬
stallation for outdoor cremation was put back into operation, the so-called In¬
stallation V, and that the unit sorting the inmates ' luggage was reinforced.

The time needed to unload a train full of people and their luggage, if it was
only one transport, was 4 to 5 hours, and it was not possible to process a
transport in less time than that. Although it was possible to handle the people
in this period of time, the luggage of these people piled up in such quantities
that it was necessary to give up the idea of intensifying these transports, de¬
spite the reinforcement of this luggage-sorting unit by 1,000 additional detain¬
ees, the implementation of this operation could not be accelerated in any way.
[■■■]

After 8-10 weeks of cremations, the crematoria had become unserviceable for
further use, so it was impossible to carry out continuous operations in each
individual crematorium. With regard to Eichmann’s consideration that, from
the end of 1944 and during 1945, even more intensive transports had to be ex¬
pected, it was planned to create still larger crematoria, that is to say, this was
conceived in the form of a huge bricks furnace with a circular muffle which
was to be installed underground. But this facility was never even designed be¬
cause there was no time for it. ”

Addressing Siewierski’s next question regarding Otto Moll’s activities, whom

he considered to have been the head of the crematorium, Hoss replied (pp.
857-859):

“When I got to Auschwitz, Moll was assigned to some subcamp. I had to pull
him out of that unit and assign him to the cremation unit at the site where the
inmates were cremated outdoors, because they did not do it.

Prosecutor: And did Moll do it?

170

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Defendant: Yes. He was quite good at it. ”

During the 9th hearing, in connection with a question by the expert witness
Dr. Kowalski on sterilization experiments, Hoss made this incredible state¬
ment (p. 1011):

“According to information / received from the Reich Security Main Office,
among Himmler’s plans was the extermination of Slavic peoples, primarily the
Poles and the Czechs, for which those systems could serve, with which they
were experimenting. ”

Dr. Kowalski then asked him whether he had seen the head collection of gyp¬
sy children. The defendant replied (p. 1013):

“No, / did not see it. I only saw this mouth cancer on Gypsy children who were
at the so-called infirmary in the Gypsy camp. Himmler also saw this Noma
disease, then gave the order to the doctor who was dealing with these issues,
as far as I remember Mengele, to kill these children immediately. That was in
1942. ’’

At the 11th hearing, defense attorney Ostaszewski asked the defendant wheth¬
er Auschwitz was a camp designed for extermination. Hoss replied (p. 1216):
“From 1942 onward, this camp was primarily an extermination camp. ”

During the 12th hearing, Hoss testified on the reports he had to send to Berlin
and on the deportation of Hungarian Jews (p. 1308):

“Himmler received precise weekly reports on all the camps, and a special re¬
port on Auschwitz was issued since mid-1941. Certainly nothing was exagger¬
ated in these reports. There were therefore accurate information on the num¬
ber of those unable to work, on the fluctuations taking place, that is to say, ex¬
terminations, new transports, etc. The same thing happened for each opera¬
tion. The reports were compiled by [my] adjutant, and Himmler kept these re¬
ports coming from Auschwitz. Hence, these extermination plans for Auschwitz
certainly did not come from me.

Then, with regard to the organization of all the transports from Hungary, I
could not imagine going to Hungary, as the camp commander and [later] head
of Office D 1, and organizing there these large transports of these Hungarian
Jews without the knowledge of the Gestapo. Pohl sent me there in order to es¬
tablish roughly how many individuals fit for labor could be expected from the
large operations undertaken by Eichmann. This figure was necessary because
Himmler had provided [promised to provide] 200,000 workers to the Arma¬
ments Department, which basically were not there in general, but Pohl had re¬
ceived the order from the supreme head of the concentration camps to obtain
this figure, no matter how and where he could get it. For this reason, I had to
ascertain in Hungary how many among the Jews reported by him or the Hun¬
garian police were able to work. ”

Later Hoss added (p. 1312):

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

171

“When I met Eichmann in Budapest in May 1944, he told me that the Hungar¬
ian police had established that in the second operation — the first operation
had occurred in 1943 — they reckoned with 5,000 [sic] arrests. Together with
Eichmann, I managed [to enter] various camps with the head of the Hungarian
police, and with the help of the Jewish elders, I myself managed to calculate
how many were able to work, and obtained a figure of 33%. Later, when we
transported 200,000 [Hungarian Jews] to Auschwitz, that is, in 11 [recte: 111]
railway transports, it turned out that 30% were able to work. ”

During the 14th hearing, the expert witness Nachman Blumenthal [recte:
Blumental\ addressed the issue of the number of Auschwitz victims. On the
basis of purely conjectural statistics, by a process of elimination, he claimed
that around 1,500,000 Jews were killed at Auschwitz: The total number of
deaths across Europe was 6,200,000, 1,400,000 of them in the Soviet Union,
and 600,000 Jews of Romania and Hungary. Of the remaining (6,200,000 -
1,400,000 - 600,000 =) 4,200,000 Jews, 3,000,000 were Polish and 1,200,000
Western Jews. About 1,000,000 died in ghettos, through executions, forced
labor etc., and 3,200,000 were killed in the “extermination camps” of Belzec,
Sobibor, Treblinka, Chehnno, Auschwitz and Majdanek. The victims of Tre-
blinka and Chehnno were 760,000 and 340,000, respectively, totaling
1,100,000, reduced by the expert to one million, because Poles were also
among those gassed. Hence, 2,200,000 remain. At Belzec and Majdanek, be¬
tween 800,000 and 1,000,000 Jews perished. This figure, the expert explained,
“is not yet definitive, because the investigations in this regard have not yet
come to an end. So, one million or 800,000 died at Treblinka, Sobibor and
Belzec. Hence, between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 remain for Auschwitz” (p.
1478). This calculation makes no sense. Previously, Blumental had distributed
the alleged victims in a more reasonable manner:

Treblinka: 731,600

Chelmno: 340,000

Majdanek: 400,000

Sobibor & Belzec: _ 400,000

Total: 1,871,600

In that case, his total of gassing victims was 3,000,000, however, so for
Auschwitz “about one and a half million victims” would remain (p. 1470), in
fact 1,128,400, which comes close to the above figure if we assume as a start¬
ing point the figure of 3,200,000 gassing victims for all camps. In particular,
the victims were 80,000 from all of Silesia, 150,000 from the General Gov¬
ernment, Majdanek and Plaszow, 50,000 from Lodz, 100,000 from the “east¬
ern territories” (the text is followed by a question mark), and 1,000,000 from
Western and Southern Europe {ibid.). The total is 1,380,000.

Hoss reiterated the figures he had provided from the beginning (p. 1490):

172

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Poland & Upper Silesia:

250,000

Germany & Theresienstadt:

100,000

Netherlands:

95,000

France:

110,000

Belgium:

20,000

Hungary:

400,000

Czechoslovakia:

95,000

Greece:

65,000

Total:

1,135,000

According to the expert witness, this figure was correct, but only accounted
for the larger transports. It was then necessary to add 10,000 Jews from Italy,
30,000 to 40,000 from Yugoslavia, and a fraction of the 5,000 deceased Bul¬
garian Jews (pp. 1482-1489). Hoss was explicitly asked to report on these mi¬
nor transports, but he did not remember any figures. But when taking into ac¬
count these figures, urged Prosecutor Siewierski, could the defendant’s figure
of 1,135,000 turn into 1,500,000? Hoss declared:

“This is exactly the figure I can remember. There are still figures of single pe¬
riods, relating to single operations which occurred in general every four to six
weeks. I can no longer remember the figures based on the succession of the
trains that came in on these particular days, figures which, from the technical
point of view, were impossible to take into account. In this way, the number
adduced by me could have been higher. ”

The prosecutor insisted, however, that perhaps Hoss’s figure did not consider
the registered Jews, and whether the figure of one and a half million could be
reached this way?

The defendant explained:

“This is a general figure, because the figure I adduced concerns the arrivals
at Auschwitz. ”

Hoss also reiterated that, during the two Hungarian operations of 1943 and
1944, the percentage of Jews fit for work was 30% (p. 1492).

Asked what happened initially when the need for workers did not yet exist,
Hoss declared:

“As I said during the investigation, Himmler's initial order was that in gen¬
eral all Jews sent to Auschwitz by the R.S.H.A., by Eichmann’s office, were to
be exterminated. Hence, that is what was decided regarding the first trans¬
ports that came from Upper Silesia, and also, in part, with regard to trans¬
ports from the General Government. This was also the case with the first
transports that came from the German Reich. Then this order was changed in
the sense that it was necessary to select those fit for work. Physicians were re¬
sponsible for selecting people who were healthy, strong, and of a certain age
[the young],"

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

173

At the prosecutor’s objection that Eichmann had provided the figure of
2,500,000 victims instead of 1,500,000, Hoss replied:

“Eichmann did not give me any number, [he gave it] only to [my] boss, the in¬
spector of all the concentration camps, Glucks. I was invited to that confer¬
ence, and on that occasion, I heard that, speaking of Auschwitz, this figure
was mentioned. This is the only figure I remember regarding the figures pro¬
vided by Eichmann.

Prosecutor: Did the defendant correct this figure?

Defendant: No. I could not argue with Eichmann about this issue because he
had to leave. I also learn from Eichmann, who was also the only one who had
compiled such figures as far as the Reich was concerned, that the percentage
of those fit for labor among those who were subjected to a medical selection at
Auschwitz varied between 25 and 30%. There were transporters from Slo¬
vakia, almost 100% of whom were fir for work, but were transports from
Greece where barely 5% were fit for work. These are the figures I can pro¬
vide. ”

When the prosecutor asked why the extermination of the Hungarian Jews was
called “Operation Hoss,” the defendant replied (pp. 1493f.):

“‘Operation Hoss’ was not an official name. I was in Hungary in 1943 as
well, and I fail to see why this operation was not called ‘Operation Hoss ’ as
well, but only the one of1944. It was officially called 'Operation R.S.H.A.

In an unusual procedure, even expert witness Blumental interrogated the de¬
fendant, asking him, among other things, important questions about the crema¬
tion of the coipses (pp. 1433f.):

“In all the death camps in the territory of Gloga [Klooga] in Estonia, at
Konary [Ponary] near Vilnius, at the Janowski Camp, at Auschwitz, the same
methods of corpse cremation were used... in which school or academy was
this method taught?

Defendant: I only know Chelmno, Treblinka and Auschwitz. I saw the crema¬
tion. By order of the Reichsfiihrer, Globe! [Blobel] had been assigned the task
of locating mass graves and totally eliminating their traces. In this context, he
ordered me to visit Chelmno in order to observe the experiments that were
carried out right there to eliminate these mass graves. There they worked with
flamethrowers, chemicals and explosives, even with various types of furnaces
used for cremation. For example, there were furnaces utilized as field furnac¬
es, or they cremated with the aid of wood soaked with gasoline. At Tremblinka
[sic], the corpses I saw and which came from the gas chamber, as well as
those which had been left for months in large pits [and that] were pulled out by
excavators, [were put] on pyres [made] of railroad tracks; the burning fire was
mixed with wood, and oil was again poured over it, and it was soaked with
gasoline. Initialy, only a few pyres and crematories were used in Auschwitz,
and cremations were carried out in this way in pits.

174

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Expert Witness: The cremation of corpses was directed by a specialist who
was called Brennmeister.

Defendant: Yes, a single subordinate commander was assigned to individual
extermination sites to deal with that question.

Expert Witness: By whom and where were these commanders instructed?
Defendant: No one was instructed and nobody was sent anywhere; they
worked out this method by themselves. ”

The expert witness Dawidowski (14th hearing) distinguished himself for his
hyperbolic and senseless statements: the four Birkenau crematoria had a ca¬
pacity of 10,000 corpses a day, and 4,000 people could be gassed within 12
minutes (pp. 15661); the gas chambers, as a whole, could exterminate 60,000
people a day; in May 1944, 11,000 corpses per day were cremated in pits, and
22,000 to 23,000 people were gassed per day, with a record of 24,000 in one
day (p. 1568); there were more than 4 million victims (pp. 1574-1576). As for
Zyklon B, Auschwitz received “deliveries of 125,800 kg [sic], i.e. two wagons
of 2,800 and 4,000 [kg], then 18 wagons for 11,000 [kg]” (p. 1575). If each
wagon contained 11,000 kg of Zyklon B indeed, the quantity would have been
198,000 kg, and the total would have been 204,800 kg; if 11,000 kg was the
total content of all 11 wagons together, the total would have been 17,800 kg,
which is at least close to the 19,000 kg claimed by Hoss.

With regard to the four-million figure, Prosecutor Siewierski asked
Dawidowski how he reconciles this with Eichmann’s figure of 2,500,000. The
expert witness replied that it included one and a half million victims who were
not Jewish! (p. 1577)

In his summation (16th hearing), Prosecutor Cyprian adopted Dawi-
dowski’s folly of the 125,800 kg of Zyklon B, a gassing capacity of 60,000
people per day, and a cremation capacity of 24,000 corpses on a single day (p.
1621). He also mentioned an alleged project to turn Auschwitz into a Himm-
lerstadt with 750,000 inhabitants and with extraordinary crematoria (p. 1623):
“The crematorium project provided for the cremation of 200,000 corpses per
day! ”

Prosecutor Siewierski stated that 300,000 inmates had been detained in
Auschwitz, and that two and a half million had not been registered. However,
the Soviet commission had found the figure of 4 million, and Dawidowski had
determined that the capacity of the cremation facilities at Auschwitz was
400,000,000 (400 million) corpses! (p. 1632)

He also tried to explain the difference between the number of victims al¬
legedly reported by Eichmann - 2,500,000 - and the one resulting from
Hoss’s memories - 1,135,000. In his view, the minor transports were missing
in Hoss’s number, including those from Vilnius and the Soviet territories;
when including these transports, one would arrive at Eichmann’s figure (pp.
1633f).

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

175

The prosecutor also adopted the Himmlerstadt story, pointing out that the
new crematorium was to have a “Ofene [offene\ Verbrennungskammer ” (open
cremation chamber) with an annual capacity, according to Dawidowski, of
seven million corpses! (p. 1646)

In his final statement, Hoss said that his silence in front of the witnesses
could be interpreted as a confession of all their accusations. Things were not
like that, and the events did not happen quite the way they had told them. He
could not argue against it, because he would not have been believed and had
no witness in favor. As examples of untrustworthy testimonies, Hoss men¬
tioned the story of the 80,000 victims gassed in just one night (Gustawa Kin-
selewska, during the 13th hearing, stated that “then [in 1944] 70,000-80,000
people were cremated daily”; p. 1418), which, Hoss contradicted, would have
meant the impossible arrival of 40 trains. He also mentioned the story of
trucks full of children dumped into cremation pits (witness Kudzela had spo¬
ken of 7,000 children burned alive in this way, dumping them from trucks into
two cremation pits, pp. 780f.). Since trucks were powered by gasoline, Hoss
objected, could they have been driven right up to burning pits? (p. 1689)

He added (p. 1690):

“Many things happened at Auschwitz, presumably in my name, of which I did
not know anything. It is not true that I would have known everything that was
happening in the camp. In this respect, first of all, my area of activities was
too large; secondly, very important things were hidden from me. I learned of
many events only here, during the investigation and during the trial. ”

Hoss ended his final statement by saying (p. 1692):

“I myself, I personally did not steal, I did not mistreat the prisoners, I did not
beat them. All that was done, I did by order of my superiors; I did not allow
any arbitrary act. However, when making this statement, I have no intention of
escaping [my] responsibility. This ends my statement. ”

With the judgment pronounced on April 2, 1947, Hoss was sentenced to
death. 123 He was found guilty of having caused the death of 300,000 registered
detainees at Auschwitz, of 2,500,000 unregistered detainees, mostly Jews who
were deported to the camp and gassed, and of 12,000 Soviet prisoners of
war. 124 However, the verdict’s argument states: 125

“Based on the average capacity of the crematoria, calculated technically and
confirmed by witness statements, and according to the number of days the
crematoria and the auxiliary facilities were in operation, one ought to assume
a total number of people gassed and cremated in the extermination facilities at
the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp of no less than 4,000,000. ”

123 See Document 19. AGK, NTN, 146, pp. 1, 7f.

124 Ibid., 17th Session, p. 4 of the verdict.

125 AGK, NTN, 104, p. 82.

176

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

On April 5, Hoss was transferred to the Wadowice Prison, about 25 km south¬
east of Auschwitz. On April 16,1947, he was hanged inside the former con¬
centration camp.

A few days earlier, on April 11th, he wrote a letter to his wife which con¬
tains surprising affirmations. Not having the original, I use the English transla¬
tion (Paskuly, pp. 189f.):

“My path through life is now coming to a close. Fate has worked out a truly
sad ending for me. Flow fortunate were the comrades who were allowed to die
an honest soldierdeath.

Calmly and composed I look toward the end. From the beginning I was com¬
pletely clear about the fact that I would perish with the world to which I had
pledged myself with all my body and soul when that world was shattered and
destroyed. Without realizing it, I had become a cog in the terrible German ex¬
termination machine. My activities in performing my task were out in the open.
Since I was the Kommandant of the extermination camp Auschwitz, I was to¬
tally responsible for eveiy thing that happened here, whether I knew about it or
not. Most of the terrible and horrible things that took place there I learned on¬
ly during this investigation and during the trial itself. I cannot describe how I
was deceived, how my directives were twisted, and all the things they had car¬
ried out supposedly under my orders. I certailny hope that the guilty will not
escape justice.

It is tragic that, although I was by nature gentle, good-natured, and very help¬
ful, I became the greatest destroyer of human beings who carried out every
order to exterminate people no matter what. The goal of the many years of rig¬
id SS training was to make each SS soldier a tool without its own will who
would carry out blindly all of Himmler’s plans. That is the reason why I also
became a blind, obedient robot who carried out every order. My fanatic patri¬
otism and my most exaggerated sense of duty were good prerequisites for this
training. [...]

What humanity is, I have only come to know since I have been in Polish pris¬
ons. Although I have inflicted so much destruction and sorrow upon the Polish
people as Kommandant of Auschwitz, even though I did not do it personally,
or by my own free will, they still showed such human understanding, not only
by the higher officials, but also by the common guards, that it often puts me to
shame. Many of them were former prisoners in Auschwitz or other camps. Es¬
pecially now, during my last days, I am experiencing such humane treatment I
never could have expected. In spite of everything that happened, they still treat
me as a human being. ”

In an “ Erklanmg ” (declaration) written the next day, Hoss reiterated: 126
“My conscience compels me to make the following statement:

126 Biuletyn Glownej Komisji Badania zbrodni hitlerowskich w Polsce, VII, 1951, op. cit., p. 222.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

111

In the seclusion of my incarceration, I came to the bitter realization of how
hard I have sinned against mankind. As commander of the extermination camp
Auschwitz I carried out a share of the Third Reich's gruesome extermination
plans of humans. I have thus severely harmed humanity and humanity. I have
inflicted untold suffering in particular to the Polish people. For my responsi¬
bility, I pay with my life. May God my Lord forgive my actions one day. I ask
the Polish people for forgiveness.

It was only in Polish prisons that I learned what humanity is. In spite of all
that had happened, I have witnessed a humaneness which I had never expected
and which puts me deeply to shame. May the present revelations and depic¬
tions of the monstrous crimes committed against mankind and humanity lead
to the fact that for all the future already the preconditions for such gruesome
events are prevented.

Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoss.

Wadowice, on April 12, 1947.”

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

179

PART TWO:
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
OF HOSS’S STATEMENTS

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

181

1. General Considerations

What stands out immediately in the chronological presentation of Hoss’s
“confessions” as presented in Part One is that his first statements, those made
to the British, contradict those he subsequently made in Nuremberg and later
in Poland. It can now be argued that the former Auschwitz commandant’s
knowledge regarding the extermination of the Jews mirrored that of those who
interrogated him.

This is undoubtedly the main reason why Holocaust historians have been
silent about the contents of Hoss’s statements to the British, particularly the
one made on March 14, 1946, while at the same time seeking to reduce them
to mere anticipations of future declarations.

This practice was introduced by Martin Broszat, who commented as fol¬
lows the passage in Hoss’s “autobiography” in which Hoss wrote that his first
interrogation (that of March 14, 1946) had taken place with the aid of whip
and alcohol, and that he did not know what the protocol contained (Broszat
1981, Note 1, p. 149):

“This is a typed protocol of 8 pages that Hoss signed on March 14, 1946 at
2:30 (= Nuremberg Doc. NO-1210). Its content does not deviate noticeably
from what Hoss stated or wrote later in Nuremberg or Krakow. ”

Decades later, Steven Paskuly agreed in his epigone (Paskuly, p. 20):

“Just after his capture in 1946, the British Security Police were able to extract
a statement from Hoss by beating him and fdling him with liquor. Hoss states
in his autobiography that he doesn't remember what was in that statement. It
does not differ in any great degree from the section entitled, 'The Final Solu¬

tion to the Jewish Question in KL Auschwitz. ’ The later section, however, does
contain more detail than the original forced statement to the British interroga¬
tors ’’ (Emphasis added)

Leaving aside the obvious distortion, if not to say lie - Hoss did not write that
he did not remember the content of the statement of March 14, 1946, but did
not know it - here two distinct problems stand out.

The first and more important one is whether the confession extorted from
the former Auschwitz commandant by way of torture was truthful, as it is evi¬
dent that with torture one can obtain both truthful and false confessions. This
problem is aggravated by that of authenticity because, as I have shown in
Chapter I, the alleged transcript of Hoss’s handwritten text and, consequently,
the English translation of this transcript (NO-1210) contains passages of capi¬
tal importance which do not appear in the handwritten text.

The orthodox Holocaust historians have no qualms about it and decree a
priori that the statement of 14 March 1946 is truthful and authentic. As far as
authenticity is concerned, it is unthinkable that in more than 70 years not a

182

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

single orthodox Holocaust historian has ever had the curiosity to look for the
original texts of Hoss’s first statements. We must therefore assume that they
have preferred to remain silent about this embarrassing aspect of Hoss’s “con¬
fessions.”

The second problem is the congruence of these first declarations’ content
with that of subsequent ones, especially those Hoss made in Poland. Here,
again, orthodox Holocaust historians declare a priori a congruence which does
not exist.

In the following critical analysis, I will follow the hermeneutic pattern out¬
lined above, beginning with the fundamental problem: are Hoss’s first state¬
ments true?

The obligatory starting point is his first handwritten text and its alleged
transcript.

2. The Genesis of the Auschwitz Camp

In the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, Hoss describes the genesis of
Auschwitz as a normal concentration camp. In May 1940, he was transferred
to Auschwitz and appointed by SS Brigadefiihrer Richard Glucks, at that time
Inspector of Concentration Camps at the SS Leadership Main Office (Fuh-
ningshaiiptamt), to build a quarantine camp for Polish detainees. Franciszek
Piper writes that the two events were not concurrent: Hoss was sent by Glucks
to inspect the Auschwitz area on April 20, 1940, and returned there on May 1
after having been appointed commandant of the camp (Piper 2000b, pp. 55fi).
Danuta Czech states that Himmler, acting on Hoss’s report, ordered Glucks on
27 April to build a concentration camp at Auschwitz (Czech 1989, p. 30.), but
this date is based on Hoss’s statements.

In the declaration of November 7, 1946, the former Auschwitz comman¬
dant tried to reconstruct the background of the camp’s establishment. It was
initiated by the Inspector of the Security Police and Security Services SS
Oberfiihrer Aipad Wiegand and his superior, the Higher SS and Police Leader
of Silesia Erich von dem Bach Zelewski. At the end of 1939, the project was
presented by Wiegand to the head of Gestapo Muller, who forwarded it to
Glucks. In January 1940, Glucks sent to Auschwitz a commission chaired by
the leader of the protective-custody camp at Sachsenhausen, SS Stimn-
bannfiihrer Walter Eisfeld. In April, Wiegand sent a commission to inspect
the Auschwitz area, headed by Hoss, who was succeeded by Eisfeld. He was
accompanied by Dr. Kirchert, hygiene expert, and SS Untersturmfuhrer (sic)
Seidler, a construction expert. The inspection, according to Hoss, took place
on April 18 and 19, 1940, after which he contacted Glucks. The project con¬
sisted in the setup of a quarantine and transit camp for 10,000 Polish prison-

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

183

ers. Eight days after the report had been submitted, Himmler gave Glucks the
order to build the camp. 127 Hence the date of April 27 given by Czech.

From the documents, it emerges that the first “Specification of Costs for
the Auschwitz Camp near Kattowitz,” signed by SS Obersturmfiihrer Seidler,
is dated April 30, 1940. The “Explanatory Report on the prov. development of
the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Upper Silesia” of July 15, 1942 mentions
that the Army Garrison Administration ( Heeresstandortverwaltung ) Kattowitz
had allocated the territory of the former Polish barracks to the headquarters of
the Concentration Camp on May 4, 1940. 128

In the manuscript, Hoss recounts Himmler’s visit of March 1941, during
which the Reichsfiihrer SS presented various projects to him: Auschwitz was
to be expanded “as a large concentration camp for the East.” The detainees
were supposed to work in agriculture, and this required land reclamation in the
swampy Vistula area. He also ordered Hoss to build a prisoner-of-war camp
for 100,000 Russian prisoners of war.

Hi mm ler’s visit is mentioned in a letter addressed to “Auschwitz Concen¬
tration Camp. Inmate Deployment 1/5. SS Untersturmfiihrer Schwarz,” dated
March 17, 1941.1 translate here the summary given about Hi mm ler’s visit: 129
“Special occurrences: On March 1, 41, at 3:30 pm, the Reichsfiihrer SS and
head of the German police arrived at Auschwitz CC. The Reichsfiihrer SS was
very satisfied with the progress and the work done in the Au. CC as observed
during the inspection by the Reichsfiihrer SS, accompanied by the inspector of
the concentration camps SS Oberfiihrer Glucks, and he expressed his utmost
appreciation to the commander of the Au. CC, SS Sturmbannfiihrer Hoss.

The guard detail of Au. CC has been reinforced since Feb. 25, 41 by one
comp, [any], moreover on March 2, 41 another comp, arrived, so that the
guard detail Au. CC now consists of 5 guard companies. ”

The reference to the PoW camp (the Birkenau camp) is anachronistic, because
the Russian campaign only began three months later. Its construction was de¬
cided at the beginning of October 1941: the first “Situation Map PoW Camp
Auschwitz Upper Silesia” (Pressac 1989, p. 185) dates back to Oct. 7, and its
related project description, the “Explanatory report on the preliminary draft
for the new construction of the PoW camp of the Waffen SS, Auschwitz (Up¬
per Silesia)” is from October 30. 130 Its construction order, issued by SS Ober¬
fiihrer Hans Kammler, at that time at Office II (“Construction”) of the Main
Office Budget and Construction, however, was transmitted to the Auschwitz
Construction Office on November 1. It had the subject “PoW Camp Ausch¬
witz” and stated:

127 Protokol, November 7, 1946. AGK, NTN, 103, pp. 25-27.

128 RGVA, 502-1-223, p. 3.

129 GARF, 7021-108-32, p. 28.

130 RGVA, 502-1-233, pp. 13ff. (the pagination is not consecutive); APMO, neg. no. 1034/7, pp. 52-
66 .

184

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“The construction order for setting up a prisoner-of war camp in Auschwitz to
accommodate 125,000 prisoners of war is hereby issued. ”

This is followed by a list of expenditures (the first installment amounted to
five million Reichsmark ). 131

Apart from this chronological discrepancy, Hoss’s reconstruction of the
camp’s creation is basically correct and is clearly the result of personal
knowledge. This is also the case for the subsequent phases, which he summed
up in this way: the number of prisoners interned at Auschwitz increased from
day to day, notwithstanding his protests about the lack of housing. The sani¬
tary facilities were inadequate, hence diseases and consequent increased mor¬
tality became “inevitable.” Here the following sentence by Hoss makes sense,
which, however, appears instead a few lines later within the framework of the
presumed extermination:

“The physicians tried everything in their power to fight the resulting epidem¬
ics; due to the excessive overcrowding, almost all measures used were futile. ”
Equally logical is this sentence:

“Since it was not permitted to bury inmates, crematoria had to be built. ”

Hence, the plans for the construction of the Birkenau crematoria were drawn
up within a normal, innocuous hygienic context, which, by the way, is also ev¬
idenced by a large number of documents (see Mattogno/Deana 2015).

3. Himmler and the Extermination Order

But here suddenly, in an overt contrast to this context, appears the alleged
criminal function of Auschwitz:

“In 1941, the first large internments of Jews from Slovakia and the district of
Upper Silesia were carried out. Those unable to work were gassed in the ves¬
tibule of the crematorium on orders of Himmler, which he gave me personal¬
ly."

In the manuscript, this is the only reference to the alleged order of the Reichs-
fiihrer SS. In the alleged transcript, this hint is elaborated upon as follows:

“In June 1941 I was summoned to Himmler in Berlin where he basically told
me the following. The Fuehrer has ordered the solution of the Jewish question
in Europe. ”

First of all, we need to look at the date. Hoss mentioned repeatedly that the
meeting took place in June, or more generally in the summer of 1941. In his
interrogation on April 1, 1946, he insisted that his summons to Berlin had tak¬
en place “before the Russian campaign had started,” “before the date that the
Russian campaign was launched,” which puts it at the first 20 days of June.

131 RGVA, 502-1-233, p. 11.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

185

However, in the short handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, the meeting
took place “in May 1941.”

In Berlin, Himmler conveyed to the Auschwitz commandant the “ Fuh-
rerbefehl ,” the order to exterminate the Jews - we will see shortly in what
context.

It is a well-known fact that the current orthodox Holocaust narrative tends
to date Hoss’s alleged meeting with Hi mm ler a year later, hence in the sum¬
mer of 1942, because there are irresolvable anachronistic contradictions for a
date in 1941, which were well-documented by Karin Orth in 1999.

In Hoss’s chronology, 1941 is a fundamental year for his reconstruction of
the events, all of which emanate from it. This is not a mere “mistake,” but a
very serious anachronism that all by itself impugns the entire reconstruction.

Here it is worth quoting Steven Paskuly’s incredible comment (his Note 2,
p. 27):

“Contrary to what Richard Breitman contends in The Architect of Genocide,
1991, Hoss is not incorrect that it was 1941 that Himmler gave him the order
to prepare for the Final Solution. The evidence that Breitman dismisses is
monumental: the experimental gassings in Auschwitz in September 1941 [see
Section 17]; the gassings at Majdanek by Globocnik in December 1941 4 132 1
the reference in the Wannsee Conference minutes to a ‘solution ’ having been
found for those unable to workf^ and the first transport of Silesian Jews
gassed in January 1942 [see Section 21], These and hundreds of other pieces
of evidence are overlooked by Breitman. Simply put, Breitman is wrong in his
conclusion that it was not until the summer of 1942 that Hoss received the or¬
der from Himmler. ”

These alleged proofs demonstrate exactly that the year 1941 is indispensable
for Hoss’s reconstruction, otherwise the execution of the extermination order
in its preliminary stages would precede its issuance. On the other hand,
Himmler’s order prohibiting the emigration of Jews, which, logically speak¬
ing, should precede the supposed extermination, was issued by him only four
months later, on October 23, 1941 (T/394):

“The Reichsfiihrer SS and Head of the German Police has ordered that the
emigration of Jews has to be prevented, effective immediately. ”

Paskuly seems to believe that Breitman had advanced his personal hypothesis;
he evidently did not know that experts such as J.-C. Pressac 134 and Robert Jan
van Pelt 135 also favor 1942 as the order year. As for the Auschwitz Museum,
Danuta Czech gave July 29, 1941 as the date (1989, p. 106), hence after the

132 It is a mystery whence Paskuly has this date. According to the official camp history, murder by
way of “gassing” began in September-October 1942. See Kranz, p. 222.

133 Purely imaginary claim. See the considerations outlined in Mattogno 2018d, Chapter 1.8.

134 Pressac 1993, p. 41: Hoss was summoned by Himmler to Berlin in “early June 1942.”

135 van Pelt 2002, p. 352: Himmler imparted the order to exterminate the Jews to Hoss during his visit
to Auschwitz “in July 1942.”

186

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

start of the war against the Soviet Union. In the five-volume history of the
camp, Franciszek Piper still supported 1941 (2000b, p. 60), but in more-recent
studies, the Auschwitz Museum has assumed an ambiguous position, renounc¬
ing the supposed meeting in the summer of 1941, yet without indicating a pre¬
cise date. Piotr Setkiewicz asserted in this regard (2001, p. 12).

“We do not know exactly when Auschwitz began to be considered as a place

for the mass execution of Jews and as a part of this plan. ”

He adds that on July 17, 1942, during his visit to Auschwitz, Himmler ordered
“the acceleration of the operation to exterminate the Jews” {ibid., p. 119). In
2014, Setkiewicz wrote in a work he edited together with Igor Bartosik and
Lukasz Martyniak that on this occasion the Reichsfuhrer SS “gave the orders
to continue expanding the Birkenau camp and intensify the extermination pro¬
cess .” 136 A footnote elaborates that “Hoss had presumably been informed of
these plans somewhat earlier, because the decision to build bunker II and in¬
troduce systematic selection was surely made before Himmler’s July 17-18,
1942 visit”; this decision would have been made “at the beginning of June
1942” (Bartosik et al. 2014, p. 33). Hence, during this period of time, Hoss is
said to have received - no one kn ows from whom, where and under which cir¬
cumstances - the infamous “ Fuhrerbefehl .” As mentioned earlier, this date
shift to 1942 completely disrupts the whole reconstruction of the genesis and
development of the extermination of the Jews at Auschwitz as laid out in
Hoss’s statements and, historically speaking, in Czech’s Kalendarium. In the
meantime, the historians at the Auschwitz Museum are still busy trying to
come up with a credible alternative explanation as to how the first extermina¬
tions were perpetrated without a specific order from Hi mm ler.

Typical Polish wartime and postwar propaganda is Hoss’s statement made
during the trial that “among Himmler’s plans was the extermination of Slavic
peoples, primarily the Poles and the Czechs”!

4. The Wording of the Extermination Order

Himmler explicitly told Hoss that the Fiihrer had ordered the “final solution of
the Jewish question.” During the interrogation of April 1, 1946, the former
Auschwitz commandant replied to the specific question that “final solution”
meant “extermination” and that he had never heard that expression before
then:

“Q Did you know the expression previous to that time?

A No, it appeared there for the first time. [...]

No, as / already said, this word appearedfor the first time on that occasion. ”

136 The phrase in italics is wrong. According to Hoss’s account, during Himmler’s visit, he ordered
Hoss to exterminate the “Jews unfit for work.” See Section 6.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

187

In the affidavit of April 5, 1946, he repeated:

“The "final solution" of the Jewish question meant the complete extermination
of all Jews in Europe. ”

Keep in mind that he was referring to June 1941. It is well-known that during
that time, but also afterwards as well, the term “final solution of the Jewish
question” was not a mysterious expression at all, for it occurred in official
documents and referred to the so-called Madagascar Plan. On February 10,
1942, Franz Rademacher, head of the Jewish section of the German Depart¬
ment for Foreign Affairs, sent a letter to the delegate Harald Bielfeld of the
same department stating: 137

“In the meantime, the war against the Soviet Union has offered the possibility
of providing other territories for the final solution. The Fiihrer has therefore
decided that the Jews are to be deported not to Madagascar, but to the East.
Hence, Madagascar no longer needs to be consideredfor the final solution. ”

It therefore makes no sense that Hitler would have called the alleged extermi¬
nation of the Jews the “final solution of the Jewish question” and that this
phrase was mentioned for the first time in Himmler’s alleged order.

5. The Motive for the Extermination Order

Why did Hitler order the extermination of the Jews? Hoss did not have the
slightest idea, so he repeated a stale story: Himmler had told him that, if the
Germans did not exterminate the Jews, they would exterminate the Germans
(interrogation of April 1, 1946, statements to Gilbert). The vacuity of this ex¬
planation is apparent from what he told Goldensohn:

“ ‘Not justified — but Himmler told me that if the Jews were not exterminated at
that time, then the German people would be exterminated for all time by the
Jews. ’ How could the Jews exterminate the Germans? 7 don’t know, that is
what Himmler said. Himmler didn ’t explain. ’ Don 7 you have a mind or opin¬
ion of your own? ‘Yes, but when Himmler told us something, it was so correct
and natural we just blindly obeyed it. ’. ”

This moronic justification was clearly taken from Hitler’s “prophecy,” at the
time known to all. During Hitler’s speech at the Sportpalast on January 30,
1942, he stated (Domarus, Vol. II/2, pp. 1828f.):

“With this we realize that the war can end only with either the extermination
of the Aryan peoples or with Jewry disappearing from Europe. Already on
September 1, 1939 [recte: January 30, 1939] I expressed in the German
Reichstag [...] that this war will not end the way the Jews imagine it to, name¬
ly by the Euopean-Aiyan peoples being exterminated, but rather the result of
this war will be the destruction of Jewry. ”

137 NG-5770. On this issue see my study Mattogno 2018d, Chapter 1.2.

188

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

In his speech on November 8, 1942, Hitler paraphrased his “prophecy” of
January 30, 1939 {ibid. , p. 1937):

“You will still remember the session of the Reichstag when / declared: If Jew¬
ry deludes itself to be able to trigger an international world war for the exter¬
mination of the European races, then the result will not be the extermination of
the European races, but rather the extermination of Jewry from Europe. ”

In this context, the affirmation had its internal logic, as the “extermination” or
“destruction” meant the end of the political role of either the European peo¬
ples or Jewry: if the latter would win the war, the European nations would find
themselves under the power of “Judeo-Plutocracy” and Bolshevism.

Detached from this context, Hitler’s statement becomes meaningless.

6. Himmler’s Two, Countermanding Extermination Orders

Which group of people did the extermination order aim at? Hoss received two
orders from Himmler, the first for the total extermination of all Jews, the sec¬
ond only for the extermination of those unfit for work.

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’ at Auschwitz
CC,” Hoss described it as follows:

“Originally all the Jews transported to Auschwitz on the authority of Eich-
mann's office were, in accordance with orders of the Reichsfiihrer SS, to be
destroyed without exception. This also applied to the Jews from Upper Silesia,
but on the arrival of the first transports of German Jews, the order was given
that all those who were able-bodied, whether men or women, were to be seg¬
regated and employed on war work. This happened before the construction of
the women’s camp, since the need for a women’s camp in Auschwitz only
arose as a result of this order. ”

And again:

The Jews are the eternal enemies of the German people and must be eradicat¬
ed. Every Jew that we can lay our hands on is to be destroyed now during the
war, without exception. ”

Similar also during the trial:

“As / said during the investigation, Himmler’s initial order was that in gen¬
eral all Jews sent to Auschwitz by the R.S.H.A., by Eichmann’s office, were to
be exterminated. Hence, that is what was decided regarding the first trans¬
ports that came from Upper Silesia, and also, in part, with regard to trans¬
ports from the General Government. This was also the case with the first
transports that came from the German Reich. Then this order was changed in
the sense that it was necessary to select those fit for work. Physicians were re¬
sponsible for selecting people who were healthy, strong, and of a certain age
[the young], ”

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

189

We will see later that the reference to the total extermination of the Jews from
Upper Silesia and Germany is anachronistic and therefore absurd.

When was the second order issued? The data provided in Hoss’s accounts
allow us to delimit the time frame. The first transport with women arrived at
Auschwitz on March 26, 1942, and the detainees were lodged in Blocks 1
through 10 at the Main Camp, which became the first Women’s Camp. The
order therefore needs to have been issued prior to March 26, 1942. This date is
more or less consistent with what Hoss said during the trial:

“Himmler’s original order stated: ‘All Jews transported to Auschwitz must be
exterminated. ’ Because of Pohl's arguments, this order was revoked because
robust workers were needed for the war industry, and then in the spring of
1942 it was ordered that people fit for work had to be selected from these
transports. ”

The order therefore dates back to the spring of 1942. However, on July 17,
1942, during his visit to Auschwitz, Himmler ordered Hoss:

“The Jews unfit for work are to be exterminatedjust as ruthlessly. ”

We must conclude form this that, up to this point in time, Jews unfit for labor
were not (yet) being killed, and that the order to do so was issued only on July
17th, 2942. The contradiction is evident.

The fact of the matter is, however, that the documents radically refute this
alleged history of the extermination order, be it a total or a partial in nature.
The first transports of Jews were sent to Auschwitz from Slovakia and France
(see Section 21). In both cases, the purpose was employment, as I have shown
in another study (Mattogno 2018d, Section 1.2), from which I subsequently
take the essential elements.

Already on February 16, 1942, Martin Luther, an official at the German
Department for Foreign Affairs, sent a telex to the German Embassy in Brati¬
slava, informing them that, “in the framework of the measures for the final so¬
lution of the Jewish question in Europe,” the Reich government was ready to
immediately transfer “20,000 young and strong Slovak Jews” to the East,
where there is a need for labor deployment. On May 11, SS Hauptsturmfuhrer
Dieter Wisliceny, Eichmann’s representative in Slovakia, wrote the following
letter to the Slovak Department for the Interior (Hubenak, pp. 108f.):

“As / was informed by the Reich Security Main Office by telegraph on May 9,
1942, the option exists to accelerate the deportation operation of the Jews
from Slovakia by being able to send additional transports to Auschwitz. These
transports may only contain Jews and Jewesses fit for labor, no children . It
would then be possible to increase the deportation rate by 5 trains per month.
Regarding the practical implementation, permit me the following suggestion:
While resettling the Jews from the cities, the Jews which are fit for labor are
selected and sent to the two camps Sillein and Poprad. ” (Emphasis in original)

190

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

As regards France, in his report of March 10, 1942, SS Hauptsturmfuhrer
Theodor Dannecker, who was in charge of Jewish affairs in France, wrote
with reference to a meeting held on March 4 at Office IV B 4 of the RSFIA
that preliminary negotiations with the French authorities could be undertaken
“regarding the deportation of some 5,000 Jews to the East.” Dannecker speci¬
fied (RF-1216):

“For the moment, this has to concern male Jews fit for work not over 55 years
of age. ”

The “Directives for the Evacuation of the Jews,” issued on June 26, 1942 by
the Head of the Security Police and Security Services in France and signed on
his behalf by Dannecker, provided in Point 1. That, “in the framework of an
evacuation operation, all Jews subject to tagging [by the Jewish Star] of both
sexes who are fit for work and aged between 16 and 45 can be included” (RF-
1221 ).

These copiously documented directives show that at the time no order for
the extermination of the Jews existed, and that Himmler did not intend to turn
Auschwitz into an extermination camp but rather into a labor camp. In the es¬
say “The ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’ at Auschwitz CC,” Hoss
himself asserted:

“When the RFSS altered his original order from 1941 to exterminate the Jews,
according to which all Jews had to be exterminated without exception, to the
effect that those fit for work had to be deployed in the armament industry,
Auschwitz became a Jewish camp, a collection camp for Jews of a hitherto un¬

known magnitude . ” (My emphasis)

This happened in 1942. But during the Warsaw trial, Hoss declared:

“From 1942 onward, this camp was primarily an extermination camp. ”

This contradictory statement is also in total contrast to all the documentary
sources which show that Auschwitz was first and foremost a concentration
camp destined to recruit Jewish labor for employment. Not a single document
indicates that even one single transport of Jews was sent to Auschwitz primar¬
ily for extermination purposes. This is apparent even from the very few docu¬
ments whose meaning has been distorted and which were employed in that
sense by orthodox Holocaust historians, starting with the radio messages by
SS Obersturmfiihrer Schwarz, head of the department in charge of inmate la¬
bor deployment (Department Ilia) to Gerhard Maurer, head of Office DII
(Haflingseinsatz : Inmate Labor Deployment) of the WVHA. In a radio mes¬
sage of February 20, 1943 regarding transports of Jews from Theresienstadt
on January 21, 24 and 27 of that year, Schwarz indicated the number of Jews
“selected for labor deployment” (“ ausgesucht zum Arbeitseinsatz”) and those

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

191

“accommodated separately” (“gesondert imtergebracht ”). He then ex¬
plained: 138

“Special accommodation of the men ensued due to excessive fragility, that of
the women because the majority [of them] was [recte: has] children.”

A radio message of March 15, 1943 stated: 139

“Subject: Transports of Jews from Berlin. Auschwitz CC reports transport of
Jews from Berlin. Arrival on March 13, 43. Total strength 964 Jews. 218 men
a. 147 women were deployed for labor. The men were transferred to Buna.
126 men a. 473 women a. children were accommodated separately. ”

If, for the sake of the argument, we assume, without conceding it, that the ex¬
pressions “special accommodation” and “accommodated separately” were
cryptonyms that really meant murder by gassings, an interpretation which I
have shown elsewhere to be wrong (see Mattogno 2016i, pp. 54-60), it would
nevertheless remain that the primary purpose of these transports was employ¬
ment, and that the claimed gassing was merely a secondary consequence of
the inability to work. Employment, but not murder, was also the main concern
of the SS Obersturmbannfiihrer Gerhard Maurer, who was head of the
WVHA’s Office D II (inmate labor deployment). On March 2, 1943, Maurer
wrote to Hoss (Blumental, p. 108):

“Subject: Deportation of Jewish armament workers from Berlin.

I would like to point out once again that the Jewish armaments workers from
Berlin, whose transport rolled out yesterday, must be kept fit to work under
any circumstances. The fact that they have worked in the armaments industry
in Berlin proves their usefulness. First of all, the Buna Camp has to be
brought to full strength.

In doing so, however, I ask to ensure in any case that the unloading is not
done at the usual place but expediently at the Buna Plant directly. In the next
few days, I expect a substantial increase in the manpower of the Buna Plant. ”

On March 5, 1943, the commander of the Monowitz Camp, SS Obersturmfiih-
rer Heinrich Schwarz, complained (ibid., p. 109):

“If the transports from Berlin continue to roll in with so many women a. chil¬
dren as well as old Jews, I do not expect much regarding deployment. Buna
needs, above all, younger or rather strong individuals. ”

Considering this, can one still believe that the transports contained a large
number of Jews unfit for work because the Auschwitz Camp’s primary pur¬
pose was extermination? Hoss exhibited a perspective that was at least similar.
I will deal with this question in the following section.

138 APMO, D-AuI-3a/65, inventory number 32119.

139 AGK, NTN, 94, p. 174.

192

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

7. The Alleged Conflict between Eichmann and Pohl

The dual-order theory entangled Hoss in a web of contradiction with no way
out. In his “autobiography,” he wrote:

“While the concentration camps were still an end in themselves before the
war, they had developed a purpose due to the war according to the will of the
RFSS [Himmler], Now they were to serve primarily the war effort itself the
armaments industry. If possible, every prisoner was to become an armaments
worker. Every commander had to make his camp serve this purpose ruthlessly.
According to the RFSS, Auschwitz was to become a huge center of inmate ar¬

maments industry . His pronouncements during his visit in March 1941 were
clear enough in this respect. The camp for 100,000 prisoners of war, the ex¬
pansion of the old camp for 30,000 prisoners, providing 10,000 prisoners for
Buna spoke clearly enough to this end. ” (My emphasis)

Incomprehensibly, Himmler is said to have decided three months later to turn
Auschwitz into “the largest extermination facility of humans ever” (his “auto¬
biography”) or “the largest extermination center of history” (profile of Himm¬
ler).

After a few months, Himmler allegedly changed his policy again, once
more emphasizing inmate labor. Hoss tried to make sense of this sequence of
fatuities by inventing a fierce contrast between Eichmann and Pohl:

“The [position of the] Office for Jewish Issues — Eichmann/Giinther — was un¬
equivocally clear. According to the RFSS’s order of summer of 1941, all Jews
were to be annihilated. The RSHA raised the most serious concerns when the
RFSS, on Pohl's proposal, ordered the selection of those fit for work. The
RSHA has always been for the complete elimination of the Jews; it saw in eve¬
ry new labor camp, in every new set of thousand Jews fit for work a danger of
liberation, that they would remain alive through whatever circumstances.
Pretty much no other department had a higher interest in the rise of the Jews ’
death rates than the RSHA, the Office for Jewish Issues. Pohl, on the other
hand, had been ordered by the RFSS to deploy as many prisoners as possible
in armaments production. He therefore attached the greatest importance on
the admission of as many prisoners as possible, and thus also as many Jews fit
for work as possible from the transports destined for annihilation. He also at¬
tached the greatest importance to the preservation of these workers, albeit
with little success. RSHA and WVHA therefore had exactly opposite points of
view. But Pohl seemed stronger, for behind him stood the RFSS, demanding
with increasing urgency prisoners for the armaments industries, forced by his
promises to the Ftthrer . On the other hand, the RFSS also wanted to annihilate
as many Jews as possible. ” (My emphasis)

This story is arrant nonsense, because Eichmann could not have been bound
by an order that was allegedly issued in the summer of 1941 but subsequently

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

193

countermanded and replaced by the second order, the one concerning the “se¬
lections” of those able to work, which was the only order in force at the time.

Assuming that this order had been given by Himmler “on Pohl’s proposal,”
Hoss also forgot that the first order came from the Fiihrer as well, who was the
only person who could countermanded it, replacing it with another order. But
in Hoss’s tale, Hitler appears only in passing as the one Himmler had made
“promises” to regarding the increased deployment of Jews in the armaments
industry, not as the one who had given the respective order.

Hoss then adds:

“Starting in 1941, when Pohl took over the concentration camps, they were in¬
tegrated into the armaments program of the RFSS. The harder the war be¬
came, the more ruthlessly the RFSS demanded the prisoners ’ deployment. The
majority of the prisoners, however, were of eastern descent, and later the
Jews. They were sacrificed mainly for armaments production. The concentra¬
tion camps were caught between the RSHA and the WVHA. The RSHA sup¬
plied the prisoners with the ultimate goal of extermination; it didn ’t matter
whether immediately by executions or by the gas chamber, or a little more
slowly by the epidemics (caused by the conditions in the concentration camps
which had become untenable, and which were purposely not remedied). The
WVHA wanted to maintain the prisoners for the war effort. ”

This narration is also full of nonsense. It does not make sense to state that
“The RSHA supplied the prisoners with the ultimate goal of extermination,”
because Eichmann’s competence extended only to deportations. He had no in¬
fluence either on the formation of transports or on the “selection” of those fit
for work, as these activities were carried out locally. For example, regarding
the deportation of Hungarian Jews, the transports were prepared by the Hun¬
garian police, while the “selections” were carried out by the Auschwitz camp
staff.

The claim that the Auschwitz camp administration did nothing to eliminate
the epidemics that ravaged the camp is false, as I documented in a dedicated
study (see Mattogno 2016g, Part One). This is also contradicted by Hoss him¬
self in his handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, where he wrote:

“The physicians tried everything in their power to fight the resulting epidem¬
ics; due to the excessive overcrowding, almost all measures used were futile. ”

But even that last claim is at best oversimplifying it and ultimately untrue.

But most importantly, Hoss’s claim is refuted by the series of documents
signed by himself, a series of garrison orders ( Standortbefehle )” spanning
from July 1942 to February 1943, where he made arrangements for “control¬
ling the epidemic,” in particular Order No. 19/42 of July 23, 1942, 140 No.
25/42 of September 14 (pp. 174fi), No. 26/42 of September 30 (pp. 18 If.), No.

140 Frei et al., pp. 155f. All subsequent page numbers in this paragraph from there, unless stated oth¬
erwise.

194

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

28/42 of October 10 (p. 186), 29/42 of October 13 (pp. 188f.), No. 30/42 of
October 25 (p. 189), and No. 34/42 of December 3 (p. 199). The epidemic
slowed down in the early months of 1943, but intensified again in July. 141

From the second half of 1943 onward, the epidemic was contained and
stamped out, and the camp’s hygienic and health conditions improved.

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’ at Auschwitz
CC,” Hoss even succeeded in transforming the positive fact of the increased
ratio of deported persons who were fit for work into a detrimental fact:

“Because of the increasing insistence of the Reichsfuhrer SS on the employ¬
ment of prisoners in the armaments industry, Obergruppenfiihrer Pohl found
himself compelled to resort to Jews who had become unfit for work. The order
was given that if the latter could be made fit and employable within six weeks,
they were to be given special care and feeding. Up to then all Jews who had
become incapable of working were gassed with the next transports, or killed
by injection if they happened to be lying ill in the sick block. As far as Ausch-
witz-Birkenau was concerned, this order was sheer travesty. Everything was
lacking. There were practically no medical supplies. The accommodation was
such that there was scarcely even room for those who were most seriously ill.
The food was completely insufficient, and every month the Food Ministry cut
down the supplies still further. But all protests were unavailing and an attempt
to carry out the order had to be made.

The resultant overcrowding of the healthy prisoners could no longer be avoid¬
ed. The general standard of health was thereby lowered, and diseases spread
like wildfire. As a result of this order the death rate spiked and a tremendous
deterioration in the general conditions developed. / do not believe that a single
sick Jew was ever made fit again for work in the armaments industry. ”

Hoss claimed that Himmler never took a definitive position regarding the al¬
leged conflict between Eichmann and Pohl; in his essay “The ‘Final Solu¬
tion...,”’ Hoss wrote that it “was impossible to get the Reichsfuhrer SS to
make a definite decision in this matter,” yet Pohl, as Hoss wrote in his profile
devoted to him, is supposed to have been “the most willing and obedient ex¬
ecutor of all of RFSS Heinrich Himmler’s wishes and plans.” Not to mention
that Himmler was the supreme leader of both the RSHA and the WVHA, so
he must have been at least as schizophrenic as Eichmann was portrayed by
Hoss.

In his profile of Eichmann, Hoss attributed a radical conception of the
“Endlosung der Judenfrage” (Paskuly, p. 242):

141 Ibid., pp. 302, 314-320, Kommandantursonderbefehl Nr. 15/43 of July 7, 1943; 16/43 of July 23;
30/43 of July 27; anAKommandanturbefehl'Nlx. 17/43 of July 30, 1943.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

195

ing America, were not in a position to catch up to this tremendous loss of
blood, nor did they want to. It was not expected that these Jews would have
more than the average number of children. ”

If we follow the orthodox logic, then this must also have been Himmler’s
point of view at the time of the alleged order of total extermination. This in¬
terpretation has its internal logic, but it is also in stark contrast to Hoss’s claim
that Auschwitz, the largest “extermination camp,” was to be turned into a
huge labor pool of Western Jews by Himmler’s will.

8. The Eastern Extermination Camps

The fleeting reference to Himmler’s alleged order in the handwritten state¬
ment of March 14, 1946 was considerably expanded in the so-called transcript
of this text:

“Several so-called extermination camps already exist in the General Govern¬
ment (BELZEK near RAVA RUSKA eastern Poland, TREBLINKA near MA-
LINA [Malkinia] on the River BUG, and WOLZEK near LUBLIN). ”

We need always to keep in mind that Himmler is said to have made these
statements in June 1941, but it is well known that, according to the orthodox
Holocaust narrative, the Belzec Extermination Camp came into operation only
on March 17, 1942, and the Treblinka Camp on July 23 (Arad, pp. 165, 178).
The attempts of orthodox Holocaust historians, especially those of the Ausch¬
witz Museum, to eliminate this stark anachronism are completely inconclu¬
sive. Always the same argument is proposed on occasion with only a few var¬
iations (Bezwinska/Czech 1984, Fn 1, p. 109:

“Himmler most likely thought here about the lands of the Soviet Union where
Einsatzgruppen ’ were ‘liquidating ’ its civilian inhabitants regarded as ‘ob¬
jectionable element'. The 'liquidating ’ took at first the form of mass shooting,
next, victims were killed with combustion gases in lorries especially adapted
for the purpose. ”

Piper reiterates (Piper 2000b, Vol. I, Fn 70, p. 60):

“In one of his depositions, Hoss mistakenly identifies these as the Treblinka,
Sobibor and Belzec camps, which would not come in existence for another
year. Himmler in fact must have been thinking of the execution sites that had
been prepared near the ghettos in Kaunas, Riga and Minsk. ’’

These explanations are obviously arbitrary, first of all because Hoss claimed
to have done nothing other than repeat what Himmler had told him, second
because the alleged meeting between Hoss and Himmler is said to have taken
place even before the start of the Russian Campaign, so that the Reichsfiihrer
SS could not have referred to later events.

196

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Hoss’s reference to “Belzek,” Treblinka and “Wolzek” was not a singular
event, for he repeated it in four more statements (March 14, April 4, 5, May
20, 1946).

Hoss’s alleged visit to Trebli nk a in 1941 (see Section 11) confirms the ab¬
surdity of his chronology and the indefensibility of Piper’s explanation. Con¬
trary to what this historian of the Auschwitz Museum claimed, Hoss did not
“identify” Sobibor at all. In the context of the “ Fuhrerbefehl ,” he mentioned
only “Wolzek” together with Belzec and Treblinka. But this “Wolzek” camp
never existed. Hoss or the British and American interrogators who questioned
him did not know it, so this ghost camp also appears in subsequent statements
(April 4, April 5, and May 20, 1946, where Belzec is confounded with “Bel-
sen”!). The Poles, on the other hand, kn ew this well already for geographic
reasons, so in Hoss’s statements made in Poland, “Wolzek” disappears and
Sobibor takes its place. Van Pelt asserts that “probably Hoss referred with
‘Wolzek’ to Sobibor” (van Pelt 2002, Note 6, p. 509), but this does not make
much sense, because these names don’t sound similar, hence it’s unclear how
the two could be confused; in the case of confusion due to assonance, it is
more likely that “Wolzek” was a repeated reference to “Belzek.”

It is also true that during the interrogation of April 1, 1946, Hoss said that
the third camp was about 40 km east of Kulm, but here is another confusion.
The Sobibor Camp was actually about 40 km north-northeast of the town of
Chelm (all distances as the crow flies), but the German name for Chelm is
Cholm, whereas Kulm is the German name for a town called Chelmno, but not
the one where another alleged extermination camp was located (Chelmno nad
Nerem), whose German name was Kulmhof (located some 66 kilometers
northwest of the city of Lodz), but rather different, larger town of the same
name located about 40 km north-northwest of the city of Thom/Torun. These
two Chelmnos are actually 135 km apart.

In the statements cited above about “Belzek,” Trebli nk a and “Wolzek,”
Hoss reported Himmler’s alleged words, who is said to have mentioned these
names. Contrary to this, the defendant, speaking in the same context of “the
already existing extermination sites,” stated during the Warsaw Trial that he
“did not mention these sites.”

The absence of Chelmno (Kulmhof) in the list of “extermination camps”
can also be attributed to the ignorance of the British and American investiga¬
tors. In fact, this camp’s name appears only in Hoss’s Krakow statements.

Another gross anachronism concerns the existence of “gas vans” already in
July 1941, at the time of Eichmann’s alleged first visit to Auschwitz (Bez-
winska/Czech 1984, p. 110; see Section 15):

“Eichmann informed me about the killing with engine exhaust gases in lorries,

which had so far been used in the east. ”

During the Warsaw Trial, Hoss confirmed that Eichmann had

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

197

“told me that the Jews transported to the already existing extermination sites —
he did not mention these sites - were shot by special operating units or gassed
in so-called gas vehicles, that is to say, in trucks adapted to this purpose. ”

For orthodox 1 lolocaust historiography, however, these presumed murder
weapons (see Alvarez/Marais) were deployed for the first time only in the
second half of November 1941 (Beer, p. 161).

In addition to the stark anachronisms found above, the sentence in question
also contains an obvious contradiction: in June 1941, Himmler allegedly con¬
veyed to Hoss the “ Fiihrerbefehl ,” which, as results from the context, had just
been issued, but at that time there were allegedly already three “extermination
camps” in operation, one of which, as we will see below, already for six
months. Who issued the order when to build and operate those camps? Hence,
there must have been a “ FiihrerbefehT' before the June 1941 “ Fiihrerbefehl ,”
dating back to late 1940 at the latest, if we are to take any of this seriously!

9. The Commando of the Eastern Extermination Camps

The alleged transcript of the handwritten statement of 14 March 1946 contin¬
ues:

“These camps were under the authority of the Einsatzkommandos [task forces]
of the SECURITY POLICE headed by high SIPO officers and guard details. ”

In the interrogation of April 1, 1946, Hoss stated that the three extermination
camps were under the supervision of the “commander of the Security Police”
or “In other words, the RSHA,” in particular its “executive,” Gruppenfiihrer
Muller, “the Chief Executive of Amt IV” of the RSHA. Orthodox Holocaust
historiography claims that Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka were under the con¬
trol of SS Brigadefiihrer Odilo Globocnik, the SS and Police Leader of the
Lublin District. He headed “Operation Reinhard,” to which I will return later.
Evidently, neither Hoss nor the British and American investigators knew
much if anything about this. The Americans had only a few vague inklings,
because Hoss claimed on April 4, 1946 that these camps “came under the
commander of the Security Police and Higher SS and Police Leader of Kra¬
kow.”

Globocnik was mentioned by Hoss in the interrogation of May 14, 1946 as
“Globotschnigg.” Globocnik allegedly had visited Auschwitz, although the
former camp commander did not remember exactly when, either in 1942 or
1943. He was sure, however, that the visit happened at a time “when the
crematoria had already been finished,” which places this claimed visit not be¬
fore the middle of 1943.

In Globocnik’s profile outlined by Hoss at Krakow (see Section 53), we
read:

198

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“In the summer of 1943 Himmler ordered him to Auschwitz in order to per¬
sonally see the extermination process as it was performed there. He didn’t
think anything was special. According to him, his extermination centers
worked much more quickly, and he threw numbers around of his daily accom¬
plishments. I remember him saying that in Sobibor, for example, they pro¬
cessed five trainloads daily and that they collected valuables in the billions.
[...] From Eichmann I knew that for technical reasons only two trains could
pull into Sobibor in any one day. ”

Not the slightest documentary trace of this alleged visit has been found. In
Czech’s Kalendarium, Globocnik is not even mentioned. If the visit really had
occurred, Hoss would have learned directly from Globocnik about his exter¬
mination activities and would not have made the mistakes mentioned above.

Globocnik’s alleged mission to Auschwitz, even if on Himmler’s order,
doesn’t make sense, because the only two camps still in operation at that time,
Sobibor and Treblinka, were being shut down and officially ceased operations
a few months later, if we follow the orthodox narrative. On September 17,
1943, Globocnik was transferred to Italy, assuming the position of “Higher SS
and Police Leader in the Operational Area Adriatic Coast” (Schelvis, p. 228).

Himmler’s logic looks very strange: first he sent Hoss to Globocnik at Tre¬
blinka in order for Hoss to learn how the extermination was carried out there
(see Section 11), then he sent Globocnik to Hoss for Globocnik to learn how
the extermination was carried out at Auschwitz!

As I pointed out in Part One, neither Hoss, nor the British, nor the Ameri¬
cans had the faintest idea of the genesis of alleged Eastern extermination
camps, which in their minds were already in operation before Hitler had is¬
sued his phantasmagoric “ Fiihrerbefehl .”

The Poles knew only little more for their part. In the statement of January
11, 1947, Hoss reconstructed the extermination process in these terms: after
the first phase, carried out at the beginning of the war by an “Einsatzkomman-
do” commanded by SS Brigadefiihrer Ohlendorf, followed the second phase,
carried out

“carried out in the Warta district by the district head of the SS and the police
[Hoherer SS- und Polizeifiihrer] v. Alvensleben in Posen and the head of the
SS and the police [55- und Polizeifuhrer~\ Globocnik in his district, or after the
beginning of the war with Russia in the eastern territories, v. Alvensleben and
Globocnik established extermination facilities for the Jews under their respec¬
tive command — v. Alvensleben in Chelmno /Chulmhof/ and in Grudziqdz, Glo¬
bocnik in Sobibor, Belzec, Treblinka and Lublin. The facilities of Grudziqdz,
Chelmno and Treblinka were already established in 1940, Globocnik’s other
facilities since the beginning of the war with the Soviet Union in 1941. ”

It is a fact that no person named von Alvensleben was ever Higher SS and Po¬
lice Leader of the Warthegau. This position was held in succession by SS

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

199

Obergruppenfuhrer Wilhelm Koppe (until October 9, 1943), by SS Ober-
gruppenfuhrer Theodor Berkelmann and by SS Gruppenfuhrer Heinz Reine-
farth.

An “extermination facility” in Grudziadz (a village about 25 km northeast
of the town of Chelmno, or 50 km north of Thom/Torun) is completely un¬
known. The Polish Encyclopedic Informer records various camps (PoW
camps for Belgian and British soldiers, labor camps, transit camps, camps for
Wehrmacht prisoners, for adolescents, arrest camps, camps of the police and
the Gestapo), but no extermination camp anywhere near that village (Glowna
Komisja... 1979, entry “Grudziadz,” pp. 194f.).

The claim that Chelmno and Treblinka had started operating in 1940 is
clearly false, as well as that “Globocnik’s other facilities,” i.e. Belzec and So-
bibor, had started operating in 1941.

Until the end, Hoss had no idea that “Operation Reinhardt” supposedly was
the term used for the extermination operation of the Jews of the General Gov¬
ernment and the Bialystok District. For Hoss, this term stood for an economic
operation, i.e. the seizure of the victims’ assets, as he wrote in Globocnik’s
profile and reiterated even more explicitly during his trial:

“All the assets of the detainees to be gassed were recorded under the name of

‘Operation Reinhardt ’ and were made available to the Reich authorities. ”

10. The Efficiency of the Eastern Extermination Camps

If the “extermination camps” at Belzec, Treblinka and Wolzek (supposedly
Sobibor) already existed in June 1941, what was the need to establish another
“extermination camp” at Auschwitz? Himmler’s first answer to this question
appears in the “transcript” of Hoss’s handwritten text of March 14, 1946:

“These camps had a low capacity’, however, and could not be expanded. ”

In the interrogation of April 1, 1946, the motive to set up the Auschwitz camp
was similar, i.e. that “the extermination camps in Poland that existed at that
time were not capable of performing the work assigned to them,” that it was
necessary to eliminate their “mistakes and inefficiency,” and also because
these other camps “were not suitable for enlargement.”

In his affidavit of April 5, 1946, Hoss reports that the commander of Tre¬
blinka “used monoxide gas and I did not think that his methods were very ef¬
ficient.” To Goldensohn he stated that these camps “were incapable of carry¬
ing out a large-scale action of extermination.” In his essay “The ‘Final Solu¬
tion...,”’ Hoss elaborated in the same vein:

“The existing extermination sites in the east are not able to carry out the in¬
tended large operations. ”

200

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

During his trial, the defendant summarized the statements set out above, add¬
ing that “for logistical reasons it was impossible to send a large number of
people to the extermination centers in the East.” The existing (fictitious) ex¬
termination camps were unable to annihilate the Jewish masses that would
have to be sent there, presumably because the killing system using engine-
exhaust gas “was inefficient and above all unreliable, so there were inconven¬
iences (‘it did not work well’).”

From the perspective of orthodox Flolocaust historiography - leaving aside
Kurt Gerstein’s deluded ramblings about the alleged inefficiency of the east¬
ern “extermination camps” - the aforementioned statements are totally fatu¬
ous, since the three camps under discussion are said to have had a total of ap¬
proximately 1,384,500 victims, more than those attributed to Auschwitz. In
particular, the “inefficient” camp par excellence (according to Hoss), Treblin-
ka, is said to have killed at least 800,000 people! (Hilberg, p. 958)

The claimed motives for converting Auschwitz into an extermination camp
are therefore totally inconsistent with orthodox claims about the other alleged
extermination camps.

11. Hoss’s Visit to Treblinka: The Dating

Hoss’s alleged visit to Trebli nk a (on this see Kues) is not mentioned in the
handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, but appears in the “transcript.” We
read there:

“I myself visited the Treblinka camp in spring of 1942 to acquaint myself with
the conditions. ” (My emphasis)

However, in the interrogation of April 3, 1946, Hoss changed the year of the
visit:

“Q. And in another statement by you, made at another place, you said you vis¬
ited Treblinka in 1942. Which year is correct?

A. 1941 is correct. If I said 1942, it was incorrect . ’’ (My emphasis)

So Hoss had been wrong when earlier giving the year 1942 instead of 1941,
the actual year of the visit.

To Goldensohn, Hoss said that Himmler had requested “precise plans” to
implement the extermination of the Jews, and in that context, he “was sup¬
posed to inspect a camp in the East, namely Treblinka, and to learn from the
mistakes committed there.” He added that “a few weeks later” (but see Section
15 on that) Eichmann visited him at Auschwitz, and that “meanwhile” Eich-
mann “had inspected the extermination camp of Treblinka.” If these words are
to make any sense, Hoss went to Treblinka during the “few weeks” which
passed between his meeting with Himmler (June 1941) and Eichmann’s arri¬
val at Auschwitz (according to this chronology, in July 1941 at the latest).

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

201

During the interrogation of April 1, 1946, Hoss confirmed that Eichmann
went to Auschwitz before Hoss’s visit to Treblinka. In fact, during this meet¬
ing Hoss asked Eichmann to get him a permit to enter Treblinka.

In practice, the visit to Treblinka would have taken place no later than July
1941, pretty much one full year before that camp was even opened!

12. The Victims of Treblinka

In the supposed transcript, Hoss states about the Treblinka gassing of the vic¬
tims that “this was about the evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto” and that, “Ac¬
cording to statements made by the camp leader, some 800,000 people had
been gassed at the TREBLINKA camp in the course of half a year.” During
the interrogation of April 1, 1946, he confirmed that “at that time the action in
connection with the Warsaw Ghetto was in progress”; he claimed to have
spent “about three or four hours” at the camp and saw a single train. Conform¬
ing with the orthodox belief in Eichmann’s omnipotence, Hoss stated that he
managed to get access to the camp because he had been “introduced by Eich¬
mann. They had been advised of my arrival by Eichmann.” If that visit had
been real, the former Auschwitz co mm andant would obviously have been “in¬
troduced” by Globocnik.

In his affidavit of April 5, 1946, Hoss reaffirmed:

“I visited Tremblinka [sic] to find out how they carried out their extermina¬
tions. The Camp Commandant at Tremblinka told me that he had liquidated
80,000 in the course of one-half year. He was principally concerned with liq¬
uidating all the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. ”

Hoss did not “remember” who the Trebli nk a commandant was - SS Ober-
sturmfuhrer Irmfried Eberl - who in the six months before July 1941 had al¬
ready destroyed 80,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, although it is a notori¬
ous fact that the deportation of the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Trebli nk a
began only on July 22, 1942!

13. The Treblinka Gas Chambers: Location, Number and Modus
Operandi

In this regard we read in the alleged transcript of the handwritten statement of
March 14, 1946:

“The exterminations were conducted using the following method: There were
small chambers the size of rooms which were filled with gas from vehicle en¬
gines through feed pipes. This method was unreliable, because the engines
consisted of old captured vehicles and tanks, which failed frequently. ”

On April 1, 1946, Hoss supplied further details:

202

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“A. They had chambers for about 200 people. Into these chambers the fumes
from an exhaust machine came in. These motors had been taken from captured
enemy equipment such as tanks, trucks and had been installed next to the gas
chambers. They were run by gas, and those victims were supposed to be suffo¬
cated by the fumes.

Q. How many chambers were there, and how many people were killed?

Q. They were put directly into the chambers from the trains?

A. Yes. ”

Hoss gave Goldensohn this account:

“Treblinka was a few barracks and a railroad line side track, which had for¬
merly been a sand quarry. I inspected the extermination chambers there. These
chambers were built of wood and cement; each was about the size of this cell
(approximately eight feet by eleven feet), but the ceilings were lower than in
this cell. Along the side of the extermination chambers, motors from old tanks
or trucks were set up, and the gases of the motors, the exhaust, was directed
into the cells, and this is how the people were exterminated. ’

How many people at a time? 7 couldn 't tell you exactly but I estimated that in
each chamber, which was about the size of this cell, but not as high, about two
hundred people were shoved in at one time — pressed into the cell very close
together. ’

Men, women and children? ‘Yes, but they were brought into the cells separate¬
ly, that is, the men were exterminated in the same chambers but at different in¬
tervals. ’ You have this cell to yourself and it is not very large, therefore, two
hundred people would have to be packed like sardines. ‘Yes, the door had to
be jammed shut and the people pressed very close together, standig up. ’ How
many chambers were there at Treblinka? 'There were ten such chambers, each
made of stone and cement. The authorities at Treblinka would leave the people
to be exterminated in these chambers with the motors running for one hour af¬
ter they had started the motors, and then they opened the doors again. By that
time all were dead. I don't know how long it really took for the gas to kill
them. '. ”

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” written in Poland, Hoss came back to

his phantasmagoric visit:

"[...] in Treblinka I saw the whole operation. The latter [Treblinka] had sev¬
eral chambers, capable of holding some hundreds of people, built directly by
the railway track. The Jews went straight into the gas chambers without un¬
dressing, by way of a platform which was level with the trucks [sic, read
tracks]. A motor room had been built next to the gas chambers, equipped with
various engines taken from large lorries and tanks. These were started up and

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

203

the exhaust gases were led by pipes into the gas chambers, thereby killing the
people inside. It took more than half an hour until all was silent inside the
rooms. ”

From these stories it is deduced that there were 10 “gas chambers” at Treblin-
ka “built of wood and cement” and at the same time “made of stone and ce¬
ment,” each one of them measuring some “eight feet by eleven feet,” hence
some 2.4 m x 3.4 m = 8.2 m 2 , which could hold 200 people, or (200 -t- 8.2 =)
24.4 persons per square meter or (200 a- 88) 2.3 persons per square foot!

In his affidavit of April 5, 1946, Floss asserted:

“Another improvement we made over Tremblinka f 142 ^ was that we built our
gas chambers to accommodate 2,000 people at one time, whereas at Trem¬
blinka their 10 gas chambers only accommodated 200 people each. ”

This refers to Morgue #1 of Crematoria II and III, the alleged “gas chamber,”
which measured 30m x 7 m= 210 m 2 , so the packing density of the victims
was inexplicably barely (2,000 a- 210 =) 9.5 persons per square meter in con¬
trast to the 24 persons per square meter at Treblinka!

The verdict of the Dtisseldorf Jury Court in the trial against Kurt Franz es¬
tablished that the first extermination building contained three gas chambers
measuring roughly 4 m x 4 m x 2.60 m each, while the second building had
either 6 or 10 such chambers of roughly 8 m x 4 m x 2 m (Riickerl, pp. 203f.).
The floor area of these chambers would have been 16 m 2 and 32 m 2 , respec¬
tively, hence twice or four times as much as that resulting from Floss’s data.

The claims about 3 and 10 gas chambers originate, through Jankiel Wier-
nik’s striking plagiarism, from a report about Treblinka’s “steam rooms” cre¬
ated on November 15, 1942 (Mattogno/Kues/Graf 2013, pp. 785-798). The
extermination method attributed by Floss to Trebli nk a - “monoxide gas” pro¬
duced by “vehicle engines” or “engines” - came without question from Kurt
Gerstein’s statement of April 26, 1945, which two Allied officers had extract¬
ed from him, one American (John W. Haught) and the other British (Derek
Curtis Evans), 143 and which the deputy chief prosecutor of France Charles
Dubost had introduced into evidence during the Nuremberg Tribunal on Janu¬
ary 30, 1946 (the report, together with other documents, was classified as PS-
1553).

According to the orthodox narrative, the “gas chambers” of the first and
second extermination buildings were equipped with only one engine, yet Floss
speaks of “various engines.” Moreover and even more serious, the “gas cham¬
bers” are said to have been quite a distance away from the train platform: the
deportees, having descended from the train, were brought to the Umschlag-
platz (processing square), surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, where the

142 Hoss’s misspelling of that camp’s name has an interesting parallel to the 1944 article “Tremblinki
- Das Hauptvemichtungslager,” in: Silberschein, pp. 33-40.

143 Declaration by J.W. Haught of Jan. 30, 1961. T/1308.

204

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

men’s and women’s undressing huts as well as the women’s haircutting hut
were allegedly located. From there, a fenced-in corridor, the so-called “hose”
(“Schlauch ”), is said to have led to the “gas chambers.” 144

Flow, then, could Floss “see” the deportees walking “directly into the
chambers from the trains”? According to him, the “gas chambers” were “built
directly by the railway track” and the “Jews went straight into the gas-
chambers - still dressed - by way of a platform which was level with the
trucks” (my emphasis). Floss has also contradicted himself, because he had as¬
serted during his interrogation of April 1, 1946:

“Q. And what happened to their clothing?

A. They had to undress before they were put into the chambers. ” (My empha¬
sis)

Floss stated moreover that “the chambers were opened after a half an hour,”
but in his essay “The ‘Final Solution...’” he asserted: “ After an hour, the gas
chambers were opened up and the bodies taken out, undressed [...]”

14. Treblinka: Cremation of the Corpses

Another blatant anachronism to the orthodox Flolocaust narrative is Floss’s as¬
sertion of having “seen” the cremation of the victims’ corpses at Treblinka. To
Goldensohn he said:

“At first they were placed in mass graves in the sand quarries, and later when
/ inspected they had just started burning the corpses in open sand quarries or
ditches and had begun to excavate the mass graves and burn those that had
been buried.

After getting back to Auschwitz, he added, “we started burning the corpses in
open ditches like in Treblinka. A layer of wood, then a layer of corpses, an¬
other layer of coipses [sic; probably: wood], et cetera.” In his essay “The ‘Fi¬
nal Solution...,”’ he confirmed that at Trebli nk a the corpses were cremated
“on a framework made of railway tracks. The fires were stoked with wood, the
bodies being sprayed every now and then with petrol refuse.” But according to
the orthodox narrative, the burning of corpses started only during the spring of
1943 (Arad, p. 188). The cremation order is said to have been personally is¬
sued by Hi mm ler.

The cremation technique described in the two statements is also contradic¬
tory, because the one involving alternating layers of wood and coipses as Hoss
said was also used at Auschwitz did not assume a “framework made of rail¬
way tracks.” I will return to this issue in Section 29.

144 Kogon et al„ p. 342. Treblinka map as reconstructed by the Diisseldorf Court based on witness
statements.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

205

15. Eichmann’s Visit to Auschwitz

During the fantasy meeting in Berlin in June 1941, Himmler is said to have
told Hoss that Eichmann would contact him to discuss details of the extermi¬
nation plan. For this purpose, Eichmann went to Auschwitz. The dating of this
alleged visit is contradictory. In his testimony at Nuremberg, Hoss affirmed:

“I met Eichmann about 4 weeks after having received that order from the
Reichsfiihrer. He came to Auschwitz to discuss the details with me on the car¬
rying out of the given order, ”

which means that this was no later than July 1941.

To Goldensohn, Hoss stated that Eichmann showed up in Auschwitz “a
few weeks later” and said “that the first transports from the General Govern¬
ment and Slovakia were to be expected.” As will be seen in Section 21, the
first transport from Slovakia arrived at Auschwitz on March 26, 1942, while
no transport from the General Government went to Auschwitz during the first
months of the alleged extermination. It is clear that Hoss confused it with Up¬
per Silesia, which was mentioned by him several times in this context. It also
makes no sense that Eichmann is said to have announced already in July 1941
the March 1942 arrival of the first transport to be exterminated in Auschwitz.
During the Warsaw Trial, Hoss declared instead:

“A few days after / received this order, Eichmann came to me to Auschwitz
and gave me the precise details of the project. ”

Hence, Eichmann’s alleged visit took place “about 4 weeks after” and at the
same time “a few days after” the phantom meeting of Hoss and Himmler in
Berlin.

Since, as I pointed out in Section 3, this had happened “before the Russian
campaign had started,” Eichmann’s visit, according to this discordant chro¬
nology, took place in the second half of June 1941.

Fact is, however, that Eichmann did not go to Auschwitz either in 1941 or
in 1942. Not the slightest documentary clue supports the visit. In her Kalen-
darium, Czech proposes August 1941 (pp. 108f.), but it is a simple conjecture
drawn from Hoss’s statements in Poland.

Hoss and Eichmann allegedly inspected the Birkenau area in search of a
site most suitable for extermination. I will deal with this aspect, which is
linked to the so-called gassing “bunkers,” in Sections 23-27.

16. The Extermination of Soviet PoWs

During their meeting, Hoss and Eichmann agreed that the extermination was
to be performed by gas, but they did not yet know which gas to employ. In
this context, Hoss introduces the “first gassing” and the “discovery” of Zyklon
B as a killing tool. Before dealing with this issue, it is necessary to address the

206

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

related topic of the extermination of Soviet prisoners of war. They are already
mentioned in the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946:

“Russ. Po Ws were also transferred for gassings by the state police headquar¬
ters of Breslau a. Troppau. ”

The “transcript” of this document states instead:

“At the same time, the transports of Russian PoWs from the regions of the Ge¬
stapo headquarters BRESLAU, TROPPAU and KATTOWITZ also arrived,
which had to be exterminated at Auschwitz on HIMMLER’s order, written di¬
rection of the Gestapo chief in charge. ”

The expression “At the same time” refers to the time when Hoss is said to
have been summoned to Berlin, hence June 1941.

Later this text states:

“Ipersonally remember having gassed 70,000 Russian PoWs during my time
as commander in Auschwitz on the order of the Gestapo chiefs in charge. ”
Hoss must have been aware of the fact that altogether 13,775 Soviet prisoners
of war had been transferred to Auschwitz (Brandhuber, p. 46), 9,983 of them
in 1941 according to Czech’s Kalendarium. The death registry of these Soviet
prisoners lists 8,320 deaths between October 7, 1941 and February 28, 1942
(Brandhuber, p. 33).

Hoss also kn ew very well that these prisoners were transferred to Ausch¬
witz in order to build the Birkenau Camp, which he stated explicitly during
the interrogation of April 1, 1946 {ibid., pp. 12f.).:

“Q. Did they ever assign prisoners of war to Birkenau?

A. No, only 10,000 Russian prisoners of war came to Auschwitz, and they con¬
structed Birkenau.

Q. When they had finished the construction, what happened to them?

A. They always worked there. They remained there.

Q. And they were still there when you left Birkenau in 1944?

A. Not all of those 10,000, but some prisoners of war were still there.

Q. Why weren’t they all there?

A. A great many of them died from spotted fever or other epidemics. They had
been undernourished when they arrived at the camp. ”

Of course, Hoss knew perfectly well what had transpired, and he vividly
sketched it out in his so-called autobiography, stating that the Birkenau Camp
was to be built by Soviet prisoners of war (Bezwinska/Czech 1984, p. 57):

“They arrived from the military’ prisoner-of-war camps at Lamsdorf in Upper
Silesia, and were in very poor condition. ”

They had been led to Auschwitz after weeks of marching almost without any
food. In the Lamsdorf Camp, they were kept in horrific conditions, yet not be¬
cause of any purpose to exterminate them, but because the Wehrmacht was
not prepared to handle that many prisoners {ibid., p. 59):

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

207

“Incidentally, it was the same story with the German prisoners of war after the
collapse, in May 1945. The Allies, too, were unable to cope with such massive
numbers. They were simply herded on a convenient pat[c]h of ground, en¬
closed with a few strands of barbed wire, and left to their own devices. They
were treated exactly as the Russians had been. ”

Himmler had ordered that only robust prisoners fit for work were to be
brought to Auschwitz, but they were all weakened, and after arriving at the
camp, their conditions did not improve in the absence of additional food ra¬
tions (ibid., pp. 59fi):

“I remember very clearly how we were continually giving them food when first
they arrived at the base camp, but in vain. Their weakened bodies could no
longer function. Their whole constitution was finished and done for. They died
like flies from general physical exhaustion, or from the most trifiing maladies
which their debilitated constitutions could no longer resist. ”

The situation deteriorated even more during the winter of 1941-1942. The
number of those who had survived until then decreased from day to day, and
“Extra rations were of no avail” (ibid., p. 60). “Of more than 10,000 Russian
prisoners of war who were to provide the main labour force for building the
prisoner-of-war camp at Birkenau, only a few hundred were still alive by the
summer of 1942” (ibid., p. 61).

From this we can deduce that these Soviet prisoners of war were not sent to
Auschwitz in order to be exterminated, and that many of those who perished
there were not even intentionally killed. This account is fully confirmed by the
documents.

The Americans, on the other hand, full of their fatuous story of 70,000
gassed Soviet PoWs, urged Hoss to tell them their “truth” about these phan¬
tom gassings. This was already happening during the interrogation of April 2,
1946:

“Q. [...] however, we know for certain that the Russian prisoners also were
gassed, is that right? [...].

Q. Now we will have to go back to 1941, andfind how many Russian prisoners
of war were gassed in Auschwitz in 1941.

A. I cannot give you this number.

Q. Approximately how many?

A. (No answer)

Q. Was it fifty-thousand?

A. No, not that many. Perhaps ten-thousand.

Q. And was the procedure the same as when the Jews were gassed?

A. Yes ’’ (My emphasis)

The Americans’ “certainty” was evidently based only on testimonies.

When Hoss mentioned 10,000 Soviet PoWs, he evidently referred to those
who, in their vast majority, arrived at Auschwitz in 1941. Since he could not

208

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

recount a cohesive story of the gassing of these Soviet PoWs, Hoss was forced
to improvise, spinning an even more nonsensical yam:

“Q. How many years did the gassing of the Russian PW’s continue?

A. / believe that this terminated with the beginning of 1942. As a matter of
fact, / believe that we received no more prisoners of war after that period.

Q. You estimated about 10,000 PW’s were killed in 1941?

A. Yes.

Q. How many were killed in 1942?

A. I cannot give you any numbers. When I was interrogated at Minden, the in¬
terrogator told me that the total number certainly must have been somewhere
in the neighborhood of 100,000, but / said that / did not think they were that
many, that is impossible; that there was certainly not that many, but / always
stress the fact I cannot give any definite figures.

Q. How about an estimate?

A. / do not believe that even the figure of 70,000 is possible. I don’t believe
there were so many because the trains did not arrive every week, sometimes
there were no trains for weeks. I have tried to recall by counting the months
the total number of PW’s who arrived there.

Q. What would your most conservative estimate be?

A. The most which is possible, estimating a period of about one year, is about
eighteen to twenty-thousand.

Q. Including the ten-thousand in 1941, or exclusive of them?

A. This includes the ten-thousand in one year. But it does not include those
ten-thousand that were turned over to us for labor purposes.

Q. So eighteen to twenty-thousand Russian PW’s were gassed in Auschwitz?

A. Yes. ”

As mentioned earlier, just under 10,000 Soviet PoWs had been transferred to
Auschwitz as of the beginning of 1942. According to the Death Book
( Totenbuch ), 6,893 of them had died until December 31, 1941, none of whom
had been “gassed”; those allegedly killed during the “first gassing” belonged
to a completely invented ghost transport (see Mattogno 2016b, p. 120).

The “gassing” of these nearly 10,000 prisoners of war is therefore a plain
lie.

Here Hoss makes us understand how he was coaxed to “confess” the ab¬
surdity of the 70,000 “gassed” PoWs (which also applies to the tale of the
three-million Auschwitz death toll, for which I refer to Section 40).

At Minden, the British had told Hoss that some 100,000 prisoners of war
had been gassed at Auschwitz, but Hoss could not “give any definite figures,”
which is more than obvious, since he did not know anything about these al¬
leged gassings. He explained that he considered even a figure of 70,000 gas¬
sing victims impossible, and it may be assumed that this is how that number
ended up being included in the presumed transcript of his handwritten state¬
ment by the British. Still, in order to confirm this gossip, Hoss did no better

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

209

than doubling the number of PoWs transferred to Auschwitz, inventing anoth¬
er 10,000 that were allegedly gassed! Needless to say, this greatly satisfied his
American interrogator. The figure of “approximately 20,000 Russian prisoners
of war” that had been “executed and burnt” was in fact promptly inserted by
the American interrogators into the affidavit of April 5, 1946, submitted into
evidence by them during the IMT.

With regard to the arrival of the transports of Soviet PoWs at Auschwitz,
the interrogation protocol of April 2, 1946 contains another huge blunder that
cannot be attributed to Hoss:

“Q. The train arrived where in Auschwitz?

A. In the camp itself . We had a spur in the camp where the train arrived. ” (My
emphasis)

We are talking about the state of the Auschwitz Camp in late 1941/early 1942.
A railway line into this field never existed. Hoss could not confuse it with the
so-called “old ramp” ( alte Rampe ) either, because this was a branch that went
from the Auschwitz railway station near the Birkenau Camp, at a linear dis¬
tance of about 500 meters. It had a wooden platform and several storage
shacks. Until the construction of the new branch in early 1944 that ran into the
Birkenau Camp, the “old ramp” was also the place where transports of Jews
were unloaded. Already in February 1942, the camp administration was think¬
ing of building a connecting rail into the PoW camp. One of the reasons was
that “the loading and unloading of prisoners outside the camp on railway sta¬
tion platforms is not possible for safety reasons 145

Of course, Hoss knew the “old ramp” perfectly well, as is shown in his es¬
say “The ‘Final Solution...,’” where he wrote:

“These Jews were arrested by the Kattowitz State Police Office, and brought
by train to a siding on the west side of the Auschwitz-Dziedzice railway line
where they were unloaded. ”

The railway line in question led from Auschwitz to Brzeszcze, Jawischowitz,
Dankowitz and Dzieditz (Dziedzice), a station about 21 km from Ausch¬
witz. 146

The story of the railway track leading into the Auschwitz Camp was in all
likelihood one of the many fooleries the British and American interrogators
put into Hoss’s mouth.

145 “Abschrift. Ergebnis der Besprechung zwischen der Leitung des Konzentrationslagers in
Auschwitz und der Reichsbahnbetriebsleitung Kattowitz am 13., 17. und 23.2.1942.” RGVA, 502-
1-183, p. 118.

146 Generaldirektion..., p. 68, timetables of the railway line Oderberg-Dzieditz-Auschwitz-Trzebinia;
reproduced in Mattogno 2015d, Doc. 50, pp. 724-726.

210

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

17. The First Gassing and the “Discovery” of Zyklon B

During British imprisonment, Hoss did not know anything about either the
“first gassing” or the “gassings” in the old crematorium of the Main Camp. At
Nuremberg, this story was probably suggested by the American interrogators
who had taken it from the many testimonies on Auschwitz in their possession.
The fact is that at this time Hoss began to shape the story of the “first gassing”
in response to a specific question by Goldensohn:

“Who invented gas chambers? ‘They developed out of the situation. The courts
brought in a lot of people who had to be shot. I always objected to having to
use the same men for firing squadrons over and over again. During that peri¬
od one day my camp leader, Karl Fritzsch, came to me and asked me whether I
could try to execute people with Zyklon B gas. Until that time Zyklon B was
used only to disinfect barracks which were full of insects, fleas, et cetera. I
tried it out on some people sentenced to death in the cell prison and that is

how it developed. I didn’t want any more shootings, so we used gas chambers
instead. ’ ” (My emphasis)

In Poland, Hoss reworked this first draft, but introduced blatant contradictions.

First of all, according to the above version, Fritzsch merely suggested the
idea of using Zyklon B for the killing of people sentenced to death. The deed
as such was done by Hoss himself to test this method of killing, “in the cell
prison.” The context is that of “courts,” actually meaning the SS-Standgericht
(court martial) at Auschwitz. The Gestapo officials of Upper Silesia sent polit¬
ical prisoners into the camp who were locked up in the basement of Block 11,
the “ Arrestblock ,” which had 28 cells. Here a court martial was held, chaired
by Rudolf Mildner (as explained in point 10 of PS-3868), who imposed death
sentences, which were then carried out by shooting.

According to this, then, the “first gassing” did not concern the Soviet
PoWs, but political prisoners.

While in Poland, Hoss completely changed the general context of the “first
gassing.” In his essay “The ‘Final Solution..he outlined this picture:

In his so-called “autobiography,” he confirmed this by writing:

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

211

concentration camp for liquidation. [...] The political functionaries of the Red
Army selected that way were also sent to Auschwitz for liquidation. The first
small transports were shot by execution units of the troops. ”

The second contradiction concerns the role of Fritzsch in the initiation and
implementation of the “first gassing.”

“Karl Fritzsch, came to me and asked me whether / could try to execute peo¬
ple with Zyklon B gas. ”

While in the Krakow prison, Floss told a completely different story:

“On the occasion of a business trip, my deputy, Hauptsturmfiihrer Fritzsch,
had used gas on his own initiative to eradicate these Russian prisoners of war.
Fie did it by cramming the individual cells located in the basement full of Rus¬
sians and, while using gas masks, throwing Cyclon [sic] B gas into the cells,
causing an instant death. ” (essay “The ‘Final Solution... ”’).

“During a business trip, my deputy, leader of the protective custody camp
Fritzsch, had used gas for the killing. This was the hydrogen cyanide prepara¬
tion Cyclon B, which was being used for pest control on a regular basis in the
camp, and was thus in stock. On my return, he reported this to me, and for the
next transport, this gas was again used. The gassing was carried out in the
prison cells of Block 11. I myself watched the killing, protected by a gas mask.
Death occurred in the cram-packed cells immediately after insertion. Only a
brief, almost suffocated scream, and it was already over. / did not really be¬
come aware of this first gassing of human beings; perhaps / was too impressed
by the whole process. ’’ (“autobiography”)

In this version, Fritzsch became the initiator and performer of the “first gas¬
sing,” in Hoss’s absence and without his knowledge.

The second passage contains a further contradiction, because Hoss claims
that he watched the gassing in the basement of Block 11... in his absence!
Even the historians at the Museum of Auschwitz have noticed this (Bez-
winska/Czech 1984, note 112, p. 92):

“Although Hoss in that sentence denied having been present at the first at¬
tempt to kill with gas, nevertheless a few sentences further he stated that he
had been present when for the first time gas had been used. He wrote: [...]”

Another contradiction, this time to the orthodox holocaust narrative, concerns
the victims of the “first gassing.” Czech’s Kalendarium reports that they were
600 Soviet prisoners and 250 other camp inmates, dating the alleged event to
September3, 1941 (Czech 1989, p. 117).

During the Warsaw Trial, Hoss did not know anything about any other in¬
mates:

“Prosecutor Cyprian: Who was first gassed?

Defendant: Russian prisoners of war.

Prosecutor Cyprian: How many and how?

212

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Defendant: I don’t know the number of these gassed Russian prisoners of war.
During a trip of mine, my deputy, Fritzsch, for the first time used the gas to kill
these people. Until then, prisoners of war transferred to the camp or those ar¬
riving there were shot. When I returned, my deputy reported to me that he had
used the gas. It was ‘Cyklon B' [sic], and thanks to this gas, killing people was
possible. ”

At the time of the trial, the dating established by the Kalendarium had not yet
been devised. On the basis of the trial’s findings as summarized by the expert
Dawidowski (exclusively based on testimonies), the alleged event took place
on August 14-15 1941. 147

Considering the number of alleged victims, Hoss was also forced to change
the scene of the alleged event, first he placed if “in the cell prison,” then “in
den Arrestzellen ” (“in the prison cells”).

In a separate study dedicated to the “first gassing,” I have demonstrated
that this event is totally undocumented and historically unfounded, and there¬
fore has to be relegated to the realm of fantasies about Auschwitz (Mattogno
2016b).

When reconstructing events related to Soviet PoWs, Kazimierz Smolen’s
deposition of December 15, 1947 cannot be disregarded, which was also quot¬
ed by the Auschwitz Kalendarium (Czech 1989, p. 137). Smolen was the di¬
rector of the Auschwitz Museum between 1955 and 1990. He had been in¬
terned at Auschwitz during the war and had been employed as “ Schreiber ”
(secretary) at the Political Department, and in that capacity, he had participat¬
ed in their inmate-registration function: 148

“In early October of 1941 the first transports of Russians came to Ausch-witz.
As I was already working as Schreiber in the political department, together
with my comrades, I had to register the new arrivals. Within a week, 10,000
Russian POWs arrived from Stalag VIIIB/Lamsdorf and from another Stalag,
the number of which I have forgotten, Neuhammer-upon-Queis. [...]
Registration of the 10,000 POWs took some 3 weeks. During that time, 1,500
of them had died already, and we sent their green cards and ID tags to Berlin.
In November of 1941, a special Gestapo commission from the Kattowitz of¬
fice, headed by Dr. Mildner, came to the camp. This commission consisted of
Dr. Mildner and three persons from the SD [ Sicherheitsdienst, Security Ser¬
vice] who spoke Russian. The three men from the SD were given detainees
from the camp as interpreters, and I and another comrade were assigned to
the spe-cial commission by the political department. Thus, I was able to ob¬
serve all the work of this special commission. ”

This commission had to interview prisoners and classify them in three groups:

147 United Nations Archives. Security Microfilm Program , 1988, Reel No. 62. Hoss Trial, 14th Hear¬
ing, p. 1562.

148 Deposition of K. Smolen, December 15, 1947. NO-5849.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

213

“A. 'politically unacceptable, ’ a group that included the category ‘fanatical
communist ’

B. ‘politically unsuspicious ’

C. ‘suitable for reconstruction

Among them, 300 fanatical communists were identified, who “were executed
in smaller groups.”

This perspective openly contradicts the stories told by Hoss and Czech.
Anyone who wants to seriously consider this imaginary event to be real, has to
re-time it to December 1941, which is exactly what Pressac did (1993, p. 34).

18. The “Gassings” at the Crematorium in the Main Camp

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...’”, Hoss wrote:

“The killing with Cyclon B gas of the above-mentioned Russian prisoners was
continued, but no longer in Block 11, since after the gassing, the whole build¬
ing had to be ventilatedfor at least two days.

Hence, the mortuary of the crematorium next to the hospital was used as a
gassing room by making the dooA 149 ^ gasproof, and by piercing several holes
through the ceiling in order to throw in the gas.

/ can, however, recall only one transport of 900 Russian prisoners of war who
were gassed there and whose cremation lasted several days. Russians were not
gassed in the farmstead adapted for the extermination of the Jews. ”

He gave more details in his “autobiography”:

“The gassing of 900 Russians in the old crematorium, which took place soon
afterwards, was much more memorable to me, because the use of Block 11
caused too many inconveniences. Still during the unloading [of the Russians],
several holes were simply knocked through the morgue’s soil and concrete
roof. The Russians had to undress in the vestibule, and they all went calmly in¬
to the morgue, as they were told that they would be deloused there. The whole
transport fitted exactly into the morgue. The door was locked, and the gas was
poured through the openings. How long this killing lasted, I do not know. Dur¬
ing the insertion, some screamed ‘gas, ’ which triggered a powerful roar and a
shoving toward the two doors. But they withstood the pressure. — Only after
several hours, it was opened and ventilated. ”

This story is purely fictional. As I pointed out earlier, only 300 Soviet political
commissars were identified by the Mildner Commission and condemned to
death, so the gassing of 900 PoWs is implausible. Moreover, the fate of the
approximately 10,000 PoWs transferred to Auschwitz is well documented and
categorically excludes homicidal gassings. The circumstances of the gassing
are moreover quite ridiculous: the openings for introducing Zyklon B are said

149 The morgue, however, had two doors, one to the “ Waschraum” (wash room), the other to the fur¬
nace room.

214

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

to have been hacked through the reinforced-concrete roof of the morgue “Still
during the unloading” of those prisoners!

This gassing story is even less likely, as I have pointed out elsewhere (Mat¬
togno 2016c). The Soviet prisoners are said to have undressed in the “vesti¬
bule” ( Vorraum ) of the crematorium, which measures 4.14 m x 7 m = 28.9 m 2 ,
and could therefore accommodate about thirty people at a time. The Soviet
prisoners therefore would have undressed in about thirty batches; they all went
“quietly” ( nihig ) into the morgue, because the SS had told them they would be
deloused. But in the morgue, there were no showers nor any other fake sanita¬
tion equipment to deceive the victims, but nevertheless, the Soviet PoWs con¬
tinued to enter “quietly” in groups of 30! Since the room had a size of 16.60 m
x 4.60 m (Mattogno 2016c, page 95), and thus an area of 76.3 m 2 , they had to
pack themselves at a density of (900 a- 76.3 =) almost 12 per square meter;
that did not make them suspicious. Only when the Zyklon B was poured
through the holes in the ceiling did the dull victims realized that they were
about to be killed, and there ensued a “a shoving toward the two doors,”
which would have been impossible, because if they really had been packed
that densely, they could hardly have moved an arm.

In this context there is also a glaring contradiction with the orthodox narra¬
tive. Piper claims that, after the alleged gassing of 900 Soviet PoWs as report¬
ed by Hoss, “the room that had served as the mortuary was converted to a gas
chamber,” and that it “was used to gas several hundred Soviet POWs at a
time, as well as numerous transports of Jews who were killed wholesale, in¬
cluding entire families regardless of sex or age” (Piper 1994, pp. 159f.), yet
during his trial at Warsaw, Hoss insisted: 150

“Women were never gassed in Crematorium I. Exclusively those Russian pris¬
oners were gassed there. ” (My emphasis)

Hence, no Jews were gassed there at all, although this contradicts what Hoss
said in his handwritten statement of March 14, 1946:

“In 1941, the first [large] internments of Jews from Slovakia a. [and] the dis¬
trict of Upper Sil. [Upper Silesia] were carried out. Those unable to work
were gassed in the vestibule of the crematorium on orders of Himmler, which
he gave me personally. ” (My emphasis)

Evidently, at that time he did not yet know that the room inside the crematori¬
um which was supposed to have been used for the alleged gassings had to be
the morgue, not the vestibule!

If, in his imaginary reconstruction of the camp events, Hoss said that he
could “recall” only one gassing of 900 Soviet prisoners, it was precisely be-

150 United Nations Archives. Security Microfilm Program, 1988, Reel No. 62. Hoss Trial, 10th Hear¬
ing, p. 1070.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

215

cause for his “reconstruction” only one such gassing was required, as the for¬
mer commander of Auschwitz explicitly said during his trial: 151

" Defendant: After the first gassing in Block No. 11 — this was the prison build¬
ing — the gassings were transferred to the old crematorium, in the so-called
morgue. The gassing was done this way: holes were made through the con¬
crete ceiling, and the gas — it was a crystalline mass — was poured through
these holes into the room. I only remember one transport. 900 prisoners of
war were gassed in this way. From then on, the zassinz was carried out out¬
side the camp, in Bunker 1 . ” (My emphasis)

This is yet another contradiction to the orthodox narrative.

Hoss managed to contradict himself again when he told Goldensohn about
the “two old farmhouses,” claiming that “the first transport that came from the
General Government was brought there,” confusing the General Government
with Upper Silesia, which was part of Germany, not of the General Govern¬
ment.

19. The “Discovery” of Zyklon B and the Start of the
Extermination of the Jews

The dating of the “first gassing” is essential for the orthodox narrative on the
genesis of the claimed extermination of the Jews, precisely because it is said
to have marked the “discovery” of Zyklon B. This is explained well in Hoss’s
statement of January 29, 1947:

“From that time cyklon B was used exclusively in Oswiecim for the mass poi¬
soning of Jews. This gas proved to be easy to handle and it was not necessary
to build special complicated equipment for its use. Only cyklon B was used in
Oswiecim for the poisoning of people. ”

Hoss provides small and contrasting clues, which allows us to date this phan¬
tom event with a certain precision. In his statement of January 29, 1947, he
claimed:

“A short time later, in any event still in the year 1941, after my return from an
official trip I got from the then manager of the camp, (Schutzhaftlagerfiihrer),
Fritsch a report that during my absence, he conducted in the cellars of block
11 a test ofpoisoning human beings with the aid of cyklon B which was stored
in the camp of Oswiecim as a disinfectant. Fritsch conducted the test on sever¬
al hundred of Russian war prisoners. According to my information this was
the first case of using cyklon B for mass poisoning people. ”

The expression “a short time later” refers to Eichmann’s alleged visit to
Auschwitz, which is said to have occurred in either June or July 1941, so the
most plausible date (if the event was real) would be August 1941.

151 Ibid., 2nd Hearing, pp. 1 lOf.

216

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

During his trial in Warsaw, Hoss argued instead that the “first gassing” had
taken place “in the autumn of 1941 ,” 152

About the beginning of Jewish extermination, the former Auschwitz com¬
mandant was instead a prodigy of information, but here the contradictions are
unsurpassable as well.

In the handwritten statement of March 16,1946, Hoss states that he “per¬
sonally arranged on orders received from Himmler in May 1941 the gassing of
2 million persons between June/July 1941 and the end of 1943” (my empha¬
sis). So strictly speaking, he spoke about late spring/early summer of 1941.
According to his affidavit of April 5, 1946, the beginning of the extermination
fell in the summer:

“Mass executions by gassing commenced during the summer 1941 and contin¬
ued until Fall 1944. ”

His German-language affidavit (“ Eidesstattliche Erklaerung ”) of May 20,
1946 contains almost the same words:

“Mass executions by way of gassings started during the summer of 1941 and
lasted until fall 1944. ”

The same dating Hoss mentioned to Gilbert:

“The exterminations began in the summer of 1941. ”

The first contradiction appears in his statement of January 11, 1947, where
Hoss asserted:

“ Since the summer of 1941, I have been preparing, and since January 1942, 1

was directing the mass extermination of the Jews in the extermination facilities
of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. ” (My emphasis)

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss subsequently proposed yet anoth¬
er different timeline:

“I can no longer say at what point in time the extermination of the Jews be¬
gan. Probably already in September 1941, but maybe only as late as January
1942 ."

It should be noted that all datings placing the event prior to November 1941
are anachronistic, because at that time the “discovery” of Zyklon B as a killing
tool had not yet been made (see the next section).

20. Choosing Zyklon B for Exterminations

In Hoss’s narrative, the events leading from the “first gassing” to the extermi¬
nation of the first transport of Jews are an inextricable sequence of contradic¬
tions.

152 Ibid., 11th Hearing, p. 1150.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

217

Four weeks or a few days after Floss had received Himmler’s imaginary
extermination order, Eichmann went to Auschwitz. Meanwhile Floss had al¬
ready visited the Treblinka camp, which at that time did not yet exist. The two
SS officers agreed that the extermination had to be done by gas, but they did
not yet know what kind to use. In his essay “The ‘Final Solution..Hoss as¬
serted:

“Eichmann wanted to inquire about a gas which could easyly be acquired and
did not require any special installations, and then wanted to report back to
me. ”

Then the “first gassing” happened. In his “autobiography,” Hoss wrote in this
regard:

“But / must say frankly that this gassing had a calming effect on me, since the
mass extermination of the Jews had to be commenced in the foreseeable future,
and neither Eichmann nor / had figured out how to kill these expected masses.
It was to happen by gas, but how and what kind of gas? Now we had discov¬
ered the gas and the process. ”

And here is the story as told in Hoss’s statement of January 29, 1947:

“A short time later Eichmann came to Oswiecim. Here we discussed all the
matters relating to the planned extermination of Jews agreeing that gas should
be used in the killing of Jews. The only question which remained open was
what kind of gas to use. Eichmann left Oswiecim with the aim of gathering in¬
formation what poisoning gas would be best for mass extermination of Jews. A
short time later, in any event still in the year 1941, after my return from an of¬
ficial trip / got from the then manager of the camp, (Schutzhaftlagerfuhrer),
Fritsch a report that during my absence, he had conducted in the cellars of
block 11a test of poisoning human beings with the aid of cyklon B which was
stored in the camp of Oswiecim as a disinfectant. Fritsch conducted the test on
several hundred of Russian war prisoners. According to my information this
was the first case of using cyklon B for mass poisoning people. As the test was
successful I reported it to Eichmann who gave his agreement to the use of
cyklon B for mass extermination of Jews in the concentration camp of
Oswiecim. ”

Hoss must have informed Eichmann of the experiment, namely the “discov¬
ery” of Zyklon B for murder, but when? His essay “The ‘Final Solution...’”
contains only this single passage:

“At the end of November, a conference of the entire Jewish Department was
held in Berlin at Eichmann’s office, to which I was called in as well. Eich¬
mann 's representatives in the individual countries reported on the current
stage of the operations and on the difficulties opposing the implementation of
the operations, such as lodging those arrested, procuring transport trains,
railway timetable conferences, etc. / could not yet find out when the operation

218

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

was to be launched. Eichmann moreover had not vet located a suitable gas.

[••■]

During Eichmann’s next visit, I told him about this use of Cyclon B. and we
decided to employ this gas for the future mass extermination. ” (My emphasis)

It follows that, at the end of November 1941, Eichmann had not yet found the
suitable gas, and Hoss knew nothing of Zyklon B because the “first gassing”
had not yet been carried out. If Hoss talked to Eichmann about this during the
latter’s subsequent visit to Auschwitz, this means that according to this ac¬
count the “first gassing” occurred at or after the end of November 1941. This
is in contrast to both the dating by the Warsaw tribunal (August 14-15, 1941),
and that of the Auschwitz Kalendarium (September 3-5, 1941).

The story is completely invented, because there was no “conference of the
entire Jewish Department” “in Berlin at Eichmann’s office” at “the end of
November.” During the interrogation of April 2, 1946, the interrogator placed
this alleged conference in November 1942, which Hoss confirmed:

“Q. You remember in November 1942 you were in Berlin at Eichmann’s office
to a meeting of experts belonging to the section organized for the solution of
the Jewish question?

A. Yes. ”

But this event is not more real than the other. Considering the issues allegedly
dealt with at that conference and the presence of SS Hauptsturmfuhrer
Dannecker, which was confirmed by Hoss during the same interrogation, the
only realistic possibility is a meeting held at Office IV B 4 of the RSHA on
June 11, 1942, about which Dannecker reported in a document dated June 15.
However, Hoss did not attend that meeting, and the decisions arrived at con¬
tradict Hoss’s extermination spleen: 153

“For military reasons, a deportation of Jews from Germany to the eastern de¬
portation area can no longer take place during the summer. RSFF has there¬
fore ordered that larger numbers of Jews either from the southeast (Romania)
or from the occupied western territories be transferred to Auschwitz Concen¬
tration Camp for the purpose of labor deployment. The basic condition is that
the Jews (of both sexes) are between 16 and 40 years old. 10% Jews unfit for

work can be sent along. ” (My emphasis)

If follows that Eichmann’s second visit to Auschwitz, during which Hoss
claims to have told him about the “discovery” of Zyklon B, is as fictitious as
the first visit.

153 Klarsfeld 1977, p. 65. Document CDJC XXVI-29.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

219

21. The First Jewish Transports to Auschwitz: Dating, and the
Fate of the Deportees
In Hoss’s manuscript of March 14, 1946 we read:

I already examined the second sentence of this statement in Section 3. The
first explicitly states that the first transports of Jews arrived at Auschwitz in
1941 and came from Slovakia and Upper Silesia. During the interrogation of
April 2, 1946, he even gave a date for the commencement of these deporta¬
tions, July 1941:

“Q. So you started such actions about July, 1941, didn 'tyou?

A. Yes.

(Q. From July 1941 to October 1942, that is fifteen months?

A. Yes.

Q. So in 1941 you carried out actions against Slovakians, and the Polish
Jews?

A. Yes. ”

This dating is clearly anachronistic, since the murder weapon Zyklon B could
have been “discovered” in November 1941 at the earliest.

This topic was again touched upon in the interrogation of April 1, 1946:

“Q. Now let’s go back to the year 1942.

A. The development became more rapid and additional prisoners were arriv¬
ing. In addition, there was the delivery of Jews which began in 1941 and it
was recommenced in the Spring of 1942.

Q. How many Jew’s did you receive in 1941?

A. I believe at that time we only received 6,000 Slovakian Jews.

Q. Are you sure about the fugure?

A. It may have been 7,000. They were selected for their ability to work.

Q. You didn’t mention before that German Jews arrived in Auschwitz in 1941.
Do you know for sure that German Jews were executed in 1941?

A. They could only have come from the Upper Silesian district.

Q. When you mentioned Poles before having arrived in Auschwitz in 1941, did
you include Polish Jews?

A. Yes, they were included.

Q. By what means were they executed in 1941?

A. By gas. ”

Thus, in 1941, 6,000 or 7,000 Slovakian Jews arrived at Auschwitz who were
“selected for their ability to work,” hence those unfit for work were gassed.
But if we follow Hoss’s account, the order of total extermination was still in

220

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

force at that time, hence no selection of those fit for work should have taken
place. Not to mention that the first Jewish transport from Slovakia came to the
camp only on March 23, 1942! Just as imaginary are transports of Jews from
Germany in 1941.

The former Auschwitz commandant told Goldensohn that the first trans¬
ports of Jews arrived at Auschwitz after his return from the visit to Treblinka,
which would have been July or August 1941, if we follow his convoluted
chronology:

“How long did you stay in Treblinka? ‘Only a few hours, then I went back to
Auschwitz.

‘Then the first transports arrived in Auschwitz. ”

Contradicting this dating, Hoss asserted in his “autobiography”:

“In the spring of 1942, the first transports of Jews from Upper Silesia arrived,
all of which were to be exterminated. ” (My emphasis)

For the orthodox Auschwitz narrative, dating the first transports of Jews to
Auschwitz is of paramount importance because it directly affects the dating of
the entry into operation of “Bunker 1.” In this regard, a clarification is due, an¬
ticipating the topic that will be dealt with in Sections 23-27.

In the first edition of her Kalendarium, Czech gave as the date of these ini¬
tial transports January 1942 (Czech 1960, p. 49):

“The killing of Jews from Upper Silesia using gas was initiated. It was carried
out in the so-called Bunker No. 1, in a farmhouse converted for this purpose
that was located in the northwestern corner of the later Construction Sector B
III in Birkenau. ”

In her introduction she wrote (ibid., p. 49):

“The first Jewish transports from Upper Silesia were murdered in the gas
chambers without first having been registered. Hence they do not show up in
any camp document. ”

These were therefore Jews who should have become the victims of Hi mm ler’s
first order, that of total extermination. Czech forgot, however, that the re¬
sistance inside the Auschwitz camp was always very active and transmitted
periodic reports on what was happening inside the camp. The Polish re¬
sistance’s “Report on the Situation of the Country between January 1 and Feb¬
ruary 28, 1942” mentions the internment of prisoners from Krakow and War¬
saw at Auschwitz, but there is no reference at all to any Jews from Upper Sile¬
sia (“Oboz koncentracyjny...”, pp. 21f.).

In the 1989 edition of Czech’s Kalendarium, the beginning of activities at
“Bunker 1” was re-timed to March 20, 1942. It still concerns Jews from Upper
Silesia who were allegedly gassed “without having been subjected to a selec¬
tion” (Czech 1989, pp. 186f.). The date of March 20, 1942 is purely imagi¬
nary, because the source given by Czech (the 1973 edition of her book KL

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

221

Auschwitz in den Augen der SS) does not offer the least chronological indica¬
tion. This time, the first transport of Jews from Upper Silesia is said to have
arrived at Auschwitz on February 15, 1942, the editor of the Kalendarium was
instead tracing:

“The first transport of Jews arrived from Beuthen, which were arrested by the
State Police Office and are slated to be killed in the Auschwitz CC. ”

They were brought “into the gas chamber located in the camp crematorium”
{ibid., pp. 174f.) where Floss had maintained that “exclusively” Soviet PoWs
were killed - merely one transport, to be precise - or, contradicting himself,
also some Jews from Upper Silesia were gassed “in the vestibule of the crema¬
torium,” yet only those “unable to work,” hence after a selection.

The date of the deportation of these Jews from Upper Silesia to Auschwitz
is based on a footnote by Broszat (1981, Note 3, p. 127):

“The deportation of the Jews from Upper Silesia to Auschwitz took place in
early 1942. According to information from the Intern. Tracing Center con¬
veyed to the Institute for Contemporary History of March 27, 1958, the Jews
from Beuthener were deported on Feb. 5, 1942, for instance. ”

Several decades later, Peter Longerich revealed that this was a mistake com¬
mitted by Broszat (Longerich 2010, Note 169, pp. 55If.):

“It is generally accepted by scholars even today that the deportations from
Upper Silesia had already begun on 15 February 1942 (see Czech, Kalendari¬
um, or Steinbacher, ‘Musterstadt’ Auschwitz, 211). This mistaken view is
based on information from Martin Broszat, who referred to a letter to him
from the International Tracing Service in Arolsen dated 27 Mar. 1958. A
glance at the original of this letter shows, however, that in Arolsen at the time
‘deportations of Jews from Beuthen could only be established from 15.5.1942 ’
[sic!]. I should like to thank Klaus Lankheit of the Archive of the Institut fiir
Zeitgeschichte in Munich for letting me have a copy of the original of this let¬
ter. ”

The transport of February 15, 1942 and its gassing are therefore purely ficti¬
tious.

The meaning of the letter from the International Tracing Service in Arolsen
is not very clear: does it mean that they were indeed transported to Auschwitz
from Beuthen but that these transports did not begin before May 15, 1942? If
that is so, it would be important to know the source, which until now has not
been revealed. In fact, the Polish Informator encyklopedyczny knows nothing
of these transports. 154

On the other hand, if these transports did indeed exist, they would have ar¬
rived at a time when Auschwitz was pursuing a policy of comprehensive reg¬
istration of all arriving deportees, so that these Silesian deportees would have

154 Glowna Komisja... 1979, entry “Bytom” (Polish name for Beuthen), pp. 124f.

222

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

been registered just as were those of the first transports from Slovakia. In total
contrast to that, Hoss claimed that the first transports of Jews which arrived at
Auschwitz were either completely exterminated or, contradicting himself, that
only those selected as unfit for work were killed.

The documents are in glaring contradiction to this, as follows from the fol¬
lowing table, drawn up on the basis of real data from the Auschwitz Kalendar-
ium:

date

# of

deportees

origin

registered men

registered women

deported

registered

deported

registered

999

Slovakia

999

1000-1998

28/3

798

Slovakia

798

1999-2796

30/3

1112

Compiegne

1,112

27533-28644

2/4

965

Slovakia

965

2797-3761

3/4

997

Slovakia

997

3763-3812

3814-4760

13/4

1077

Slovakia

634

28903-29536

443

4761-5203

17/4

1000

Slovakia

973

29832-30804

5204-5230

19/4

1000

Slovakia

464

31418-31881

536

5233-5768

23/4

1000

Slovakia

543

31942-32484

457

5769-6225

24/4

1000

Slovakia

442

32649-33090

558

6226-6783

29/4

723

Slovakia

423

33286-33708

300

7108-7407

22/5

1000

Lublin CC [Majdanek]

1,000

36132-37131

7/6

1000

Compiegne

1,000

38177-39176

20/6

659

Slovakia

404

39923-40326

255

7678-7932

24/6

999

Drancy

933

40681-41613

7961-8026

27/6

1000

Pithiviers

1,000

41773-42772

30/6

1038

Beaune-La Rolande

1,004

42777-43780

8051-8084

30/6

400

Lublin CC [Majdanek]

400

43833-44232

total

16767

10,332

6,435

Hence, without exception all the deportees from the first 18 transports of Jews
were registered.

Hoss’s accounts contain yet another contradiction in this respect. In his
“autobiography” we read:

“In the spring of 1942, hundreds offlowering people, under the flowering fruit
trees of the farmstead, went mostly unsuspectingly to their death in the gas
chambers. ”

As pointed out before, already then, per Hoss, “the selection process at the
ramp” took place as well as “the further separation of those fit for work”
(Broszat 1981, p. 129; Bezwinska/Czech 1984, p. 100). The time frame is giv¬
en a few pages earlier {ibid., p. 127; 95):

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

223

“In the spring of 1942, the first transports of Jews from Upper Silesia arrived,
all of which were to be exterminated. ”

But if these Jews were to be exterminated - according to Himmler’s total ex¬
termination order - how come they were selected for work? And how is it
possible that only “hundreds” were killed?

Hoss then states:

“Right from the start of the transports of Jews from Slovakia, it [the camp]
was chock-full up to the roof lines with in a few days. ”

On the other hand, if we follow one of Hoss’s many chronologies, the Slovak
Jews could have already benefited from Himmler’s order regarding the selec¬
tion of those fit for work, but there is a contradiction too. The highest percent¬
age of those selected as fit for work was 30%, Hoss claimed. Hence, among
the 10,200 deportees, only some 3,060 would have been registered. If so,
would such a small number of deportees really have been enough to fill the
Auschwitz Camp’s lodging buildings up to the brim?

22. floss’s Extermination Plans of 1941

After the supposed extermination order of June 1941, Hoss visited Treblinka,
at that time a nonexistent camp, and Eichmann went to Auschwitz to discuss
the details of the extermination with the camp commander. I will return to this
in Section 26.

Here, however, I am concerned with Hoss’s extermination plans. In the
“transcript” of his handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, there is only a
brief reference to this:

“He wished [to see] exact construction plans conforming to these guidelines
within 4 weeks. ”

He elaborated on this during the interrogation of April 1, 1946:

“Q. Did Himmler give you orders about the construction of gas chambers?

A. No, he told me the following: that / was supposed to look at an extermina¬
tion camp in Poland and eliminate in the construction of my camp the mistakes
and inefficiency existing in the Polish camp. / was supposed to show him
planes of how / intended to construct my camp in a period of about four weeks.
He told me that he could not give me the exact figures at that time, nor the
numbers in which they would arrive, but added that the figure would run into
several millions. [...]

“Q. And then before you went on your tour of inspection [to Treblinka] you re¬
turned to Auschwitz?

A. Yes.

Q. What did you do in Auschwitz?

224

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

A. I immediately got in touch with the chief of a construction unit and told him
that / needed a large crematorium. / told him that we were going to receive a
large number of sick people, but / did not give him my real reason.

Q. And then?

A. And after we had completed our plans, I sent them to the Reichsfuehrer. Af¬
ter / had changed them in accordance with the real purpose of his instructions,
they were approved. [...]

Q. How did you send the plans to Himmler?

A. By courier.

Q. Directly to Himmler?

A. Yes, personally. ”

To Gilbert, the former commandant of Auschwitz stated:

“I was ordered by Himmler to submit precise plans as to my ideas on how the
extermination program should be executed in Auschwitz. ”

As soon as Hoss returned from Treblinka - according to his own chronology
in late July 1941 - he immediately contacted the head of the SS Construction
Office of Auschwitz, SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Karl Bischoff, although Bischoff
assumed this post only in October 1941 (see Section 49).

Hoss told Bischoff that he needed “a large crematorium,” saying that
Auschwitz had to “receive a large number of sick people” while hiding his
“real reason.” This only makes sense if the crematorium had to contain a gas
chamber. To Goldensohn, the former commandant of Auschwitz stated that he
himself had “designed” the first crematorium at Birkenau, “the newly erected
crematory and gas chambers.” In the light of Jean-Claude Pressac’s studies,
such an assertion seems at least dubious. It is now kn own to every expert in
the field that the original project of what would later become Crematorium II
was designed as a normal sanitation facility without any criminal purpose on
October 24, 1941, by SS Untersturmfuhrer Walter Dejaco, a subordinate of
Bischoff. In November 1941, the project was reworked and improved by
Georg Werkmann of the WVHA’s Main Office Budget and Construction, and
counter-signed by SS Oberfuhrer Hans Kammler, the head of Office II (Con¬
struction) of this office. 155

In a letter to the Riistungskommando (Armaments Headquarters) of Wei¬
mar dated November 12, 1941, Bischoff explained clearly what the new crem¬
atorium needed (Mattogno/Deana 2015, Vol. 1, p. 231):

“The Topf & Sohne Co., combustion plants, of Erfurt has been ordered by this
authority to build a cremation plant as quickly as possible, in view of the fact
that concentration camp Auschwitz has been augmented by a Po W camp which
is to take in some 120,000 Russians shortly. The construction of the incinera¬
tion unit is most urgent, if epidemics and other risks are to be avoided. ”

155 Pressac 1993, p. 29 and Documents 9-11 (on unpaginated insert).

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

225

Although the Poles knew these things well, in the statement of January 29,
1947, Hoss dared to assert while in Krakow:

“Plans for the gas chambers in which people in Oswiecim were poisoned with
cyklon B were made by Karl Bischoff chief of the building section of the con¬
centration camp, and by myself . The project was later discussed with the chief
of the official group C, Dr. Eng. Kammler. The construction of the gas cham¬
bers was made by the camp’s building office under the direction of its chief
Bischoff. ” (My emphasis)

Hoss then sent his imaginary “plans” directly to Himmler “by courier,” but not
until he had “changed them in accordance with the real purpose of his instruc¬
tions.”

This is foolish, because at that time Zyklon B had not yet been discovered,
so it was not kn own which gas would be used for exterminations. How and by
what criteria could Hoss have modified these “plans”? However, in his view,
Himmler received them and approved them.

After his extradition to Poland, Hoss abandoned this tale about the design
of the crematorium, which was too unlikely for the Poles, and the “plans” be¬
came those for “Bunker 1.” In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” he came up
with this new, contrary spin:

“A few days later [after Eichmann’s first visit to Auschwitz], I sent to the
RFSS by courier an exact location map and an exact description of the instal¬
lation. / have never received a reply or a decision about it. Eichmann told me
later that the RFSS approved of it. ”

One may ask to what exactly Himmler is supposed to have agreed, since, as I
noted above, at that point in time the gas to be used for the exterminations was
still unknown (see also Section 26).

23. The Bunkers of Birkenau: Origin of the Name

The history of the Birkenau “bunkers” is just one chapter from the anecdotal
fable on Auschwitz, as I have documented abundantly in a specific study
(Mattogno 2016f). In this section, I look at this issue from a different perspec¬
tive.

As long as Hoss was in the hands of the British and Americans, he exhibit¬
ed little familiarity with the term “bunker.” The term appears consistently only
in all his declarations made after his extradition to Poland.

According to Hoss, these alleged gassing installations were simply “ Bau-
emhduserf translated into English as “farmhouses” or “farm buildings.” The
interrogation of April 30, 1946 contains the odd epithet “Station 5”: 156

156 During his trial in Warsaw, Hoss called it “Installation V” (urzqdzenie V).

226

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“Q. Which had the biggest gassing capacity, Numbers one, two, three, four or
Station 5?

Here, the “Stations” one through four refer to the Birkenau crematoria, while
“Station 5” would be “Bunker 2,” the only one of the two that, according to
the orthodox narrative, was operating simultaneously with the Birkenau crem¬
atoria. Giving that facility the number 5 is only apparently logical. Although it
is true that it came after Station 4 ( i.e. Crematory IV; V according to today’s
usual numbering), it is also true that it was (allegedly) set up prior to any of
the Birkenau crematoria, so its logical name should have been: “Station 1”
(“Bunker 2”) than “Stations 2 through 5” (Crematoria I to IV). In his essay
“The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss pointed out:

“The provisional Installation I was demolished when work was started on
Construction Sector III of Birkenau.

Installation II, later called outdoor installation^ 151 ^ or Bunker V, was used until
the end, serving as an auxiliary option in case of breakdowns in Crematoria I
[II] to IV [V], ” (My emphasis)

Number 5 then turned into “Bunker 2,” which makes the above numbering
even more illogical: if “Bunker 2” was called “Station 5,” what was the name
of “Bunker 1”?

On the origin of the term “Bunker 5” (or “Bunker V”) I will elaborate later.
In the “transcript” of the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, we
read:

“The second temporary facility had been eliminated. ” (My emphasis)

Whichever way the adjective “second” was meant, whether as the second
farmhouse or as farmhouse no. 2, this statement is illogical and in contrast to
the orthodox narrative, according to which it was the first gassing installation
- the alleged “Bunker 1” - that was demolished in early 1943, not the second,
the alleged “Bunker 2,” which is said to have merely suspended its activities
in early 1943 but resumed them in May of 1944.

Of all the statements made by Hoss before his extradition to Poland, only
the interrogation of April 30, 1946 explicitly mentions the term “bunker,” but
in a slightly twisted context:

"Q. What do you call Station 5?

A. There were four crematories bunker? in Burkenau [sic].

Q. And one broker? [sic].

A. It is this bunker that I designate as No 5.

157 Freianlage in German. The statement of January 31, 1947 unequivocally establishes the identity
of “Bunker n. 2 /Freianlage/.”

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

227

Q. Was that bunker midway between two and three crematories?

A. Not between, but behind three and four somewhat removed from three and
four?”

This “bunker” was therefore “Station 5,” with an evident reference to 1944.

Most likely, Hoss had used the term “bunker” earlier on April 16, 1946,
when he spoke about “dugouts” 1 and 2:

‘‘The people buried in the two big mass graves of the so-called dugouts; one
and two, amounted to 106,000 or 107,000people. ”

The term in question, “dugout,” is in fact the English equivalent of the Ger¬
man word “Bunker,” whose primary meaning is “concrete shelter” (‘ feto-
nierter Schutzranm Brockhaus..., p. 86), such as a fortress or an air-raid
shelter. But why did Hoss call two normal farmhouses “bunkers”? The ques¬
tion obviously isn’t limited to the statements of the former Auschwitz com¬
mandant but has a more general relevance. It is strange, however, that the
American interrogators, when confronted with this unusual term for a simple
farm houses, did not ask Hoss why he called them “bunkers.” Nobody has
asked that question so far, beginning with the historians of Auschwitz Muse¬
um. Hoss himself stated that the victims were brought to the “bunker, as the
extermination facility was called,” but he did not give any explanation for his
use of this particular term.

In Auschwitz the term “Bunker” was first used for the basement of Block
11, where the camp prison was located. In one document the verb “ einbim-
kern ” appears, which referred to locking up an inmate in a cell of this pris¬
on. 158

The crematorium of the Main Camp was “set up in the existing bunker,” 159
referring to the former ammunition-storage building of the Polish army.

There existed also a “Bunkerlinie” (“line of bunkers” Frei et ah, p. 442)
which undoubtedly consisted of “ Ausweichbunker ” (“evasion shelters”) men¬
tioned in a telegram by Kammler to the Central Construction Office of Ausch¬
witz on May 25, 1944, 160 which were air-raid shelters for the camp guards.
The June 17, 1944 file memo on SS Obergruppenfuhrer Pohl’s Auschwitz
visit of June 16, 1944 mentions a “ Luftschutzbunker ” (air-raid shelter) and
u Splitterschutzbunker” (“[bomb] fragment protection shelter”; NO-2359).
There even existed a “ Kartoffelbunker ” (“potato bunker”), 161 which uses a
secondary meaning of the German term “bunker”: locations used to store bulk

158 Letter by Bischoff of May 27, 1943 to the camp commandant with the subject: “Freigabe einge-
bunkerter Haftlinge” (“release of incarcerated inmates”); RGVA, 502-1-601, p. 71.

159 “Baubericht iiber den Stand der Bauarbeiten fur das Bauvorhaben Konzentrationslager
Auschwitz ” April 16, 1942. RGVA, 502-1-24, p. 320

160 RGVA, 502-1-83, p. 22.

161 Construction sketch of the company Schlesische Industriebau Lenz & Co. A.G. of 1943 with the
subject “Railway track construction - potato transport to potato bunker” (“Gleisbau-
Kartoffeltransport bis Kartoffelbunker”). Bartosik et al., p. 177.

228

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

items such as potatoes or coke. Finally, a “Bunker I” is mentioned both in a
letter of the SS garrison administration to the Central Construction Office dat¬
ed March 18, 1944, and the answer by that office of March 24, 1944, regard¬
ing the installation of an air-raid siren. 162 But there is no correlation between
this “Bunker I” and the Flolocaust “Bunker 1” of the orthodox narrative, be¬
cause the text is devoid of any indication as to what that term stood for. Such a
correlation can even be excluded, because the orthodox narrative has it that
the gassing “Bunker 1” was demolished in March or April 1943, while the
“Bunker I” of the two above-mentioned letters evidently still existed a year
later.

So, how did the term “bunker” come into existence, and why was the term
“Bunker 5” coined?

Conforming with that twisted meaning of the term, “bunker” was also the
term used by some inmates for Morgue #1, the alleged gas chamber of Crema¬
toria II and III, as is evidenced by a statement by Henryk Mandelbaum during
the trial against the Auschwitz camp garrison at Krakow. 163 In the inmates’
imagination, the term was even extended to Crematoria IV and V. In a fanciful
statement of September 4, 1945, the former inmate Fritz Putzker described the
structure of these two crematoria, complete with drawings: they consisted of a
furnace room with eight “furnaces,” an “ash receptacle,” an “undressing
room” and four gas chambers with four “gas inlets” called “Bunker I, Bunker
II, Bunker III, Bunker IV”. The witness then states that a “Bunker V was the
funeral pyre.” 164 Here, “Bunker V” was not yet an alleged gassing installation,
but a cremation pit. This version persisted in a series of testimonies until the
early 1990s - a group of Jews who had been deported to Auschwitz inmates
from Greece interviewed by Gideon Greif.

Josef Sackar stated (Greif, p. 10):

“There were excavated pits called ‘bunkers ’ to burn the corpses. The corpses
were brought from the gas chambers to these ‘bunkers, ’ were thrown in there
and burned in the fire. ”

Jaacov Gabai confirmed {ibid., p. 132):

“Pits were set up there in order to burn the corpses which the crematorium it¬
self couldn’t handle. These pits were called ‘bunkers. ’ I worked there for three
days. From the gas chamber, the corpses were brought to the bunker and
burned. ”

162 Ibid., p. 101. See in this regard my study Mattogno 2016e, pp. 79-83 (discussion of Document
20 ).

163 AGK, NTN, 162, p. 165.

164 “Statement on Concentration Camp Conditions by a Longterm Serving Inmate” (Fritz Putzker).
September 4, 1945. TNA, WO 309/374. This testimony was recorded by “JAG’s Branch, War
Crimes Section, HQ, British Army of the Rhine, BAOR,” hence by those who arrested and tor¬
tured Hoss.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

229

This version was also propagated by Eliezer Eisenschmidt (“The pits or the
‘bunkers,’ as we called them, were large and deep”; ibid., p. 178) and by
Shaul Chasan (“There was a basin, a deep pit that was called “bunker”’; ibid.,

p. 228).

But how can the sudden and fleeting appearance of the term “bunker” in
Hoss’s above-mentioned statements be explained?

It is known that the British unit that captured Hoss was stationed in Belsen
and that his torturers used the findings of the Belsen trial as a pattern of what
the former Auschwitz commandant had to “confess”; from Hoss’s own state¬
ments we can deduce that even he was aware of this. For example, to Golden-
sohn, he stated on April 9, 1946:

“But as I saw it in the trial in Belsen where SS men worked under the same
orders as I had, I will have to face the same punishment. ” (My emphasis)

During this trial, the chief witness for the alleged extermination at Auschwitz
was Charles Sigismund Bendel, who testified during the 13th Hearing on Oc¬
tober 1, 1945. In his deposition, he used the term “bunker” once (Philllips, p.
135):

“By the Judge Advocate — How many crematoria were there? — Four, and one
which was called the ‘bunker ’, which was eventually a gas chamber. ”

A 1946 book contains a statement by Bendel titled “Le Sonderkommando,” in
which he explained (Cassou/Reisz, p. 160):

“The krematoriums were four in number, the fifth called the bunker was mere¬
ly a peasant's hut, transformed into a gas chamber for the needs of the
cause. ’ ” (My emphasis)

This use of terms leads us back to the illogical numbering indicated above.

The most likely scenario is that Hoss, in those days of April 1946, learned
about this Bendel statement - or other similar ones, such as that of Fritz Putz-
ker - from his American interrogators.

As I have documented elsewhere, the detainees who remained in Ausch¬
witz and were questioned by the Soviet Investigative Commission (February-
March 1945), beginning with the most important among them, Szlama Drag¬
on, did not know the term Bunker at all. They merely spoke of “ gazokamera ”
(gas chamber) 1 and 2 (Mattogno 2016f, p. 77). The term “bunker” appeared
for the first time in a deposition by Stanislaw Jankowski of April 16, 1945
{ibid., pp. 87-89), so it was coined between March and the first half of April
1945.

24. Otto Moll and the Bunkers

It is significant that Otto Moll, the alleged head of “Station 5” or “Bunker 2,”
claimed to know nothing about it when he was interrogated the first time, on
April 16, 1946:

230

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“Q. Will you tell us about the operation that you had been put in charge of in
the old farmhouse or farm building which was first used as gassing chamber
and what you did there?

A. I didn 't have any duties in a farmhouse there.

Q. What kind of a building was it?

A. I don ’t know lust what you are talking about . When I first came to Ausch¬
witz I worked as a gardener.

Q. Yes, we understand that too. What I am talking about is when Hoess, the
commandant, put you in charge of a converted building which was first fixed
up as an extermination plant. This was before the improvements which were
made in 1942.

A. I do not know any farmhouse and I know nothing about these things . ”

“Q. In 1941 you were put in charge of this farm building which had been con¬
verted into an extermination plant, and in that capacity you had charge of the
guards and the prisoners that were employed there, and it was your responsi¬
bility to see that any victims sent to that particular set of buildings were ex¬
terminated and their bodies destroyed?

A. They were not passed.

Q. But they were killed by any means?

A. Not that either. I couldn ’t be responsible for that because I did not have any

command jurisdiction.

Q. You were given command jurisdiction by the commandant of the camp.

A. Not that either. I was responsible for the supervision of the burning of the

corpses.

Q. And the killing of them?

A. The doctors were responsible for the killing.

Q. In 1942 you were put in charze of half of the main operations of sassins

and cremating?

A. Not that either ” (My emphasis)

This is unlikely to have been a defensive strategy, first of all because such a
total denial against all the “evidence” stacked against him appears irrational.
In such a situation, the defendants usually did not deny the alleged extermina¬
tion, but merely their personal involvement in it. But more importantly, his
testimony clearly indicates that he really did not know anything about the
whole matter. In his statements, he kept on oscillating between the proclama¬
tion of his innocence and admitting the veracity of some of the accusations of
his American interrogators. He admitted that the extermination in the “bun¬
kers” had begun in 1941 - when they did not even exist according to the or¬
thodox narrative - but persisted in declaring that his task was exclusively that
of cremating the corpses. He did not provide any information on the “bunkers”
themselves.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

231

His actual ignorance of the alleged gassing in Auschwitz differs conspicu¬
ously from his description of the procedure inside the Birkenau crematoria. In
the interrogation of April 15, 1946, he asserted:

“A. Those declared unfit for work were led by the officer of the day, usually he
would be an officer of the guards, to the cremating installations under a
guard. When the new arrivals came in, the crematorium detail, including the
guards, and myself, were led to a special room where we had to stay whenever
the transports came in, so we could have nothing to do with them.

Q. What happened then?

A. Then the groups that had come in with the transport were led into a special
room, or rooms , and there they would met by an interpreter from the admin¬
istration. [...]

Q. How did they do the gassing?

A. I do not know just how the gassing was done, because people like me just
were not allowed to be present, but I understand that there was some kind of
an opening in this room by which the gas came in. ” (My emphasis)

The next day he added:

“Q. You mentioned that in the killing of the people in the gas chambers that it
took only one half minute . On what do you base that?

A. The gas was poured in thru an opening . About one half minute after the gas
was poured in, of course / am merely estimating this time as we never had a
stop-watch to clock it and we were not interested, at any rate, after one half
minute there were no more heavy sounds and no sounds at all that could be
heardfrom the gas chamber. [...]”

Then I asked him [a doctor] why it was being done by gas, and he said that
some department had tried out various ways, after which it was found that gas

was the best and easiest way, and, moreover this was a most beautiful death
anybody could have, anyway ” (My emphasis)

There is no need to dwell too much on the dissonance of these statements with
the orthodox narrative, since most of it is evidently based on mere hearsay.

This description is so generic that one cannot even figure out which crema¬
torium he was referring to. Moll knew nothing about the orthodox terms for
the rooms involved (undressing basement or room, gas chamber), and merely
referred to them in general as “a special room,” which would be the undress¬
ing room, from where the victims were brought who knows where “in small
groups” (a statement that has no parallel in the orthodox narrative). Then they
were killed not only with gas, but also by injections! Moll did not know that
there are said to have been four openings in each roof of the alleged “gas
chambers” of Crematoria II & III, and eight in the altogether four “gas cham¬
bers” of Crematoria IV & V.

232

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Although he had been transferred to Auschwitz in May 1941, hence before
the alleged “discovery” of Zyklon B by Fritzsch, that is to say, its use during
the “first gassing,” Moll knew nothing about it, and also reported what he had
learned about the “discovery” from hearsay: that “he said that some depart¬
ment had tried out various ways, after which it was found that gas was the best
and easiest way.” Lastly, his claim that the gassings lasted only 30 seconds is
absurd (see Section 37).

25. The Start-Up of the Bunkers

Floss told his American interrogators that the alleged extermination of the
Jews in the “bunkers” had begun in July 1941 and lasted until October 1942
(see Section 21). During the interrogation of April 6, 1946, he affirmed:

“When the extermination action started in 1941, I took Moll as a subordinate
leader for one of these farm buildings. ”

In Poland he changed this chronology: Now, “Bunker 1” did not begin in July
1941, but in the spring of 1942, as stated in the “autobiography”:

Regarding “Bunker 2,” Hoss explained in his essay “The ‘Final Solution..
“While the operations in spring 1942 were still kind of small, the transports
increased during the summer, and we were forced to create another extermi¬
nation facility. ”

In Section 21, I already dealt with Czech’s unfounded elaborations on when
“Bunker 1” started operating. The date of entry into operation of “Bunker 2” -
June 30, 1942 - is equally unfounded, because the source she adduced is pre¬
cisely Hoss’s essay; the Kalendarium’s editor simply had the chutzpah to turn
Hoss’s words “during the summer” into June 30!

The reasons for the establishment of “Bunker 2” given by Czech are those
given by the former Auschwitz commandant (Czech 1989, p. 239):

“In connection with the announced transfer of further transports of Jews
which had been committed to the Auschwitz CC by the RSHA in order to be ex¬
terminated, further gas chambers are set up in Auschwitz in a farmstead simi¬
lar to Bunker No. 1.”

That text contains a blatant false insinuation aimed at circumventing the dia¬
metric contradiction that all the prisoners of the first 18 transports of Jews ar¬
riving at Auschwitz were duly registered, as shown in Section 21.

While Hoss was referring to an intensification of transports, Czech wrote
of an announcement or prediction of future transports, but not even that helped
her to hide the contradiction, because she herself claims on page 214 that the

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

233

first “selection” of detainees unable to work was carried out on July 4, 1942,
hence after “Bunker 2” started operating. She is therefore forced to implicitly
maintain the absurd thesis of the existence of three simultaneously effective
yet mutually contradicting situations: an order for total extermination (which,
in May 1942, involved the ethereal Jewish transports from Dabrowa Gomica,
B^dzin, Zawiercie, Gleiwitz and Sosnowitz, which she invented out of thin
air), another order for partial extermination (hence the selection), and at once
the complete absence of an extermination order, because she documents that
the first 18 Jewish transports were registered without exception.

26 . The Genesis of the Bunkers

How and why were the Birkenau bunkers set up? Hoss had some quite convo¬
luted ideas about it. To untangle the matter as well as possible, it is necessary
to start with Himmler’s alleged order in June 1941. According to the interro¬
gation of April 1, 1946, Hi mm ler told Hoss on that occasion that he could not
yet give him precise figures, “but added that the figure would run into several
millions ” (my emphasis).

When Eichmann made his fantasy visit to Auschwitz following Himmler’s
instructions, he told Hoss about future plans for Auschwitz, as Hoss explained
during his trial in Warsaw:

“At the time Eichmann talked about a figure of about 6-7 million people . But
he did not know anything about when these transports had to take place.
President: When Eichmann talked about this, did he have in mind to extermi¬
nate these people in Auschwitz?

Defendant: Most of these people. ” (My emphasis)

Hoss repeated:

“Eichmann told me the following: According to his provisional research at
that time, about six to seven million people from all European countries would
arrive in Auschwitz. It was not yet possible to establish exact figures. These
figures could be verified with exactitude only after a few months. ” (My em¬
phasis)

With regard to his immediate extermination plans, Hoss provided two con¬
flicting versions. In statements made to the British and Americans, he empha¬
sized the crematoria, which he allegedly came up with as extermination tools
right from the very start, as shown in Section 22; since their construction took
a long time, he was forced to fall back on the “bunkers,” which he called
“provisional installations” while in Nuremberg.

During the interrogation of April 1, he asserted:

“At the beginning I had to improvise because I didn’t have the necessary
buildings. ”

234

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

In the stories he told after his extradition to Poland, he instead placed the
“bunkers” in the foreground. The Birkenau crematoria were not conceived as
extermination tools right from the start, but were built because of the difficul¬
ties in managing the “bunkers.” Hoss describes them in his essay “The ‘Final
Solution...’” These bunkers had outdoor cremation pits, but in times of bad
weather or strong winds, an intense smell of the burning corpses was spread¬
ing for miles. In addition, “the air defence services protested against the fires
during the night which could be seen from great distances. Nevertheless, burn¬
ings had to go on even at night in order that incoming transports did not have
to be stopped.” This is a clear anachronism, however, because if we follow
Hoss’s narrative, this event refers to 1944:

“ When cremations could still be carried out day and night, the cremation ca¬
pacity of V was basically unlimited. Because of enemy air activities, no further
cremations were permitted during the night starting in 1944. ”

However, the transports had already been scheduled and could not be modi¬
fied without heavy interference with military rail transportation. Hoss carries
on:

“The above reasons led to the planning, spurred on by all means, and to the
eventual construction of the two large crematoria, and in 1943 to the building
of two further smaller installations. ”

In other statements, Hoss mistakenly claimed even that the larger crematoria
(II and III) were built in 1942, and the smaller ones (IV and V) in 1943. See
Section 31.

The former Auschwitz commandant told Goldensohn an almost opposite
story: it was the delay in the construction of the crematoria that induced him
to choose the “bunkers” and outdoor cremation pits:

“I believed that crematoriums could be erected fast and so wanted to burn the
corpses [buried] in the mass graves in the crematory, but when / saw that the
crematory [sic] could not be erected fast enough to keep up with the ever-
increasing numbers exterminated, we started to burn the corpses in open
ditches like in Treblinka. ”

The intent expressed here is quite crazy: Hoss had the corpses buried in mass
graves in order to exhume them later and cremate them in the crematorium!

At his trial in Warsaw he affirmed:

“ We needed to find a suitable gas that would guarantee that this [operation]
would take place on a vast scale without those ‘inconveniences ’ [those he had
seen at Treblinka]. He [Eichmann] took me to the camp grounds, and we found
two secluded cottages of evacuees where Bunkers 1 and 2 were set up as tem¬
porary installations. Back then it had not yet been decided whether any larger
facilities had to be built for this purpose, or whether these existing installa¬
tions were to be restructured. All he had to do was to wait how things evolved
in this first bunker. At that time, the gas to be used to kill the people was not

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

235

yet known. Eichmann wanted to search and find a suitable gas. This was my
first encounter with Eichmann. In this matter, he also reported on this to the
Reichsfiihrer. ”

Indeed, according to his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” the choice fell initial¬
ly only on the future “Bunker 1.” Hoss and Eichmann inspected the Birkenau
area

“in order to determine a suitable site. We considered as suitable the farmstead
located in the north-west corner of what later became Construction Sector III
at Birkenau. It was secluded, protected from view by forested ares and hedges,
and not too far from the railway. The bodies were to be placed into long, deep
pits dug in the adjacent meadows. At that point in time we had not vet thought
of incineration . ” (My emphasis)

The fact that it was not planned right from the start to cremate the victims of
“Bunker 1,” is yet another contradiction to Hoss’s claim that a crematorium
was designed shortly after the alleged meeting with Himmler.

In the manuscript of March 14, 1946, Hoss estimated the capacity of each
of the two “farmhouses” at 200-300 people. This is absolutely incredible. To
implement an extermination plan for 6-7 million people, Hoss and Eichmann
are said to have chosen a farmhouse where 200-300 could be exterminated -
or, contradicting himself, 800 people at a time! (see Section 27).

Not only that, but although Hoss had just returned from his phantom visit
to Treblinka where he had allegedly “seen” the cremation of coipses, and alt¬
hough there was already a crematorium for the corpses of registered detainees
in the Main Camp, we are to believe that, for such an imminent plan of gar¬
gantuan mass extermination, neither Hoss nor Eichma nn had thought about
the cremation of the victims’ dead bodies!

If we were to take Hoss’s account of the genesis of the extermination of the
Jews seriously, we would be forced to conclude that all his SS planners at all
levels were inept to the point of bordering on dementia. Everything was left to
chance and improvisation.

In order to implement Hitler’s alleged extermination order, Hi mm ler did
not address SS Obergruppenfiihrer Ernst-Robert Grawitz, who was the
Reichsarzt SS, the Reich’s topmost physician, a claim made by SS Judge Kon¬
rad Morgen (see Section 51), which was false but at least reasonable. Himmler
did not turn to the chemists of I.G. Farbenindustrie, such as Carl Krauch, who
was even known to Hoss: 165

“I know Krauch only by name. He was the chief of a chemical section in the
Ministry’ of Armament. ”

No: Himmler entrusted the plan to Hoss as if he were a world expert in exter¬
mination. Hoss in fact told Goldensohn:

165 Deposition. Krakow, January 29, 1947. NI-7183, p. 3.

236

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“I was ordered by Himmler to submit precise plans as to my ideas on how the
extermination program should be executed in Auschwitz ” (My emphasis)

And although Hoss and Eichmann agreed to carry out the exterminations with
a gas, they did not ask any chemists nor consult authoritative books, such as
the classic text by Ferdinand Flury and Franz Zernik Schadliche Gase, Dam-
pfe, Nebel, Rauch- und Staubarten that describes all the toxic gases known at
the time. No, choosing Zyklon B as the instrument of extermination was quite
a random event. After this gas had been identified, did Hoss ask those for ad¬
vice on how to best design gas chambers who were more competent in its use
than he was? Not at all:

“Nobody from the I.G. Farben personnel took part in the planning and the
construction of the gas chambers in Oswiecim. ” (Deposition of Jan. 29, 1947)

Hoss was not even interested in inquiring about this with the Tesch Company:

“Did the Tesch & Stabenow Company advise you each time through their ex¬
perts regarding the use of the gas in the crematoria?

On the extermination procedure, Hoss stated in his trial that “there were no in¬
structions; this developed over time,” and even about outdoor cremation he
claimed:

“No one was instructed and nobody was sent anywhere; they worked out this
method by themselves. ”

The story about the choice of the two Polish farmhouses as centers of the fu¬
ture extermination is clumsy and pathetic. The “Delousing facility for the
PoW Camp"”, located in Buildings 5a and 5b in Birkenau, was designed on
November 18, 1941 and included a “gas chamber” (Pressac 1989, p. 55). On
the outside wall, this gas chamber had two fans, one for air intake, the other
for the exhaust. The round openings in which they were installed are still visi¬
ble in the wall structure (Mattogno 2016f, Photos 1 & 2, p. 240).

By July 1, 1941, the pest-control company Heerdt-Lingler had sent to the
SS New Construction Office of Auschwitz, as it was called back then, a copy
of an article by Gerhard Peters and Emil Wiistinger on “Delousing with
Zyklon hydrogen cyanide in circulation gas chambers” in order to forward it
to the Friedrich Boos company, 166 which was in charge of constructing 19 cir¬
culation gas chambers for disinfestation with Zyklon B inside the Auschwitz
“Admission Building, Inmate Bath and Delousing,” which was Building 160.

On March 7, 1942 the Central Construction Office Prague requested from
the same office at Auschwitz that they “Send over planning and implementa-

166 RGVA, 502-1-339, pp. 86-90.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

237

tion documents for the construction of a delousing facility for 20,000 peo¬
ple.” 167

A delousing facility was the indispensable technical prerequisite for the
creation of a homicidal gas chamber. However, after the happenstance “dis¬
covery” of Zyklon B, Hoss did not consider it appropriate to build a new
structure for the planned extermination of 6-7 million Jews. He did not even
consider a decent gas chamber that had at least a vague resemblance to those
disinfestation facilities, but instead he is said to have jury-rigged two farm¬
houses to serve as homicidal gas chambers, which did not even have any kind
of ventilation fan.

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss wrote that, a few days after the
alleged meeting with Eichmann, he sent to Hi mm ler “by courier an exact loca¬
tion map and an exact description of the installation.” This “installation” was
not a gassing facility similar to a disinfestation facility, but a farmhouse with
demolished interior walls, gas-tight doors and some hole in the wall. And that
is said to have been taken seriously by Himmler as a homicidal gas chamber
capable of mass-murdering 6-7 million people? How can anyone seriously be¬
lieve in such fairy tales? How, indeed.

27. The Bunkers: Technical Features

a) Beginning of Operations

As shown earlier, Hoss claimed that “Bunker 1 ” started operating either in Ju¬
ly 1941 or in the spring of 1942.

b) Location

As long as he was in the hands of the British and Americans, Hoss showed
that he did not have any idea of the exact location of the “bunkers.” He gave
only very vague hints in this regard from which nothing can be deduced. The
“transcript” of the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946 only states that
the two “farm houses” were “located secludedly in the BIRKENAU area.” In
Nuremberg, Hoss pointed out that they “were deep in the woods.” To Golden-
sohn, he mentioned some other generic details: the two “farmhouses” “were
completely closed off from the outside by woods and fences,” “were separated
by a distance of six hundred to eight hundred meters,” and finally, they “were
a good kilometer from the side track.”

The location of the two farmhouses allegedly converted into gassing bun¬
kers was obviously known to the Poles in charge of preparing and staging the
trial against Hoss. Hence, only when he found himself in the prison at Kra¬
kow, could Hoss locate them with a certain degree of precision. In his essay
“The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss therefore wrote that “Bunker 1” was located

167 RGVA, 502-1-333, p. 141.

238

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“in the north-west comer of what later became Construction Sector III at Birke-
nau,” while “Bunker 2” was located “west of the later Crematoria III and IV.”

The linear distance between the two houses referred to was some 900 me¬
ters, the distance by road was much longer. Hoss mentions a distance of 600-
800 meters, without any specifics (see p. 122).

c) Number of Rooms

On this point, Hoss’s claims are not only contradictory but also in contrast to
the orthodox narrative. To Goldensohn he stated:

“I had two old farmhouses somewhat removed from the camp which I had
converted into gas chambers. I had the walls between the rooms removed and
the outer walls cemented to make them leakproof. ” (My emphasis)

If the internal walls had been removed, the “bunkers” would have had only
one “gas chamber” each. In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” however,
Hoss stated regarding “Bunker 1”:

“All the rooms, there were five of them, were filled at the same time, the gas-
proofed doors were screwed shut, and the contents of the gas cans poured into
the rooms through special hatches. ” (My emphasis)

The Auschwitz Museum insists, however, that “Bunker 1” consisted neither of
a single room nor of five, but rather of two (Piper 2000a, p. 135).

d) Doors and Field Railway

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution..Hoss asserted that

“there were two doors in each room — the dead bodies were dragged out and
brought to the pits in small trolleys running on narrow-gauge rails. ”

According to the sketches of the two “Bunkers” attached to the interrogation
protocol of Szlama Dragon dated May 10 and 11, 1945, only “Bunker 2” had
two doors, one entry and one exit. “Bunker 1” had only one door (Mattogno
2016f, Documents 11 & 12, pp. 224f.). The “narrow-gauge rails” became
known to Hoss only after he arrived in Poland. When he was in the hands of
the British and Americans, he knew nothing about them.

e~) Capacity of the Bunkers

The handwritten statement of March 14, 1946 states that the capacity of the
two “farmhouses” era “depending on size 2-300” persons. It needs to be un¬
derstood that each of the farmhouses could contain 200-300 people, and that,
consequently, the surface area of the two farmhouses must have been more or
less identical, but according to Piper, this was not so: “Bunker 1” is said to
have measured 15 m x 6 m (90 m 2 ), while “Bunker 2” measured 17.07 m x
8.34 m (142.3 m 2 , ibid., p. 134). The capacity of 300 people is a common fea¬
ture of the narrative of that time, and was echoed even during the trial at War¬
saw. Witness Arnold Rosin stated during the eleventh hearing that the “white
house” (meaning “Bunker 2”) could “not accommodate more than 300 peo-

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

239

pie” because it was a “small chamber” with dimensions of “4 x 4, or 5 x 5”
meters. 168

Hoss, who in his mind had been omnipresent at all the killing sites, did not
even kn ow this!

A couple of weeks later, on April 1, 1946, he had already changed his story:

“Q. How many people could be accommodated in each farm house for exter¬
mination?

A. The farm houses accommodated in their various chambers one complete
train shipment all at once. [...]

A. Yes, two trainloads could be taken care of at the same time in the two farm
houses ’’ (My emphasis)

During the April 2 interrogation, Hoss explained that a train normally con¬
tained 2,000 people, some 1,600-1,700 of which were unfit for work, hence
slated for gassing. In round numbers, the number of gassing victims of two
trains amounted, according to him, to some 3,500, which therefore also would
have been the capacity of the two “farmhouses.”

To Goldensohn, he stated on April 9, 1946 that

“ in each farmhouse eishteen hundred to two thousand persons could be
gassed at one time. ” (My emphasis)

This amounts to 3,600 to 4,000 persons for both facilities, or 3,800 (±200).

However, in the handwritten note of April 23, 1946, Hoss attributed a ca¬
pacity of “only” 1,500 people to the “bunker” instead (not indicating which
one of them, or even implying it was only one):

“Furthermore an open-air facility — that is, an old farmhouse had been made
gap-tight as a gas room, and could hold some 1,500 people at once. ”

After he had arrived in Poland, Hoss changed his story again. In his essay
“The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss indicated the capacity of the two facilities as
follows. “Bunker 1”:

“We calculated that in the rooms existing there, after gas-proofing them,
about 800 people could be killed simultaneously with a suitable gas. ”

“Bunker 2”:

"Bunker II was larger; it could hold about 1,200 people. ” (My emphases)

Hence, 2,000 persons for both buildings together. The ratio of these two fig¬
ures reflect the ratio of the two buildings’ claimed surface areas:
800 a- 1,200 = 0.66; 90 -a 142.3 = 0.63. In the first case, the density of the vic¬
tims is 8.4 people per square meter, in the second 8.9.

168 United Nations Archives. Security Microfilm Program , 1988, Reel No. 62. Hoss Trial, 11th Hear¬
ing, p. 1167.

240

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Hence, if we follow Hoss, the combined capacity of the two “bunkers”
grew from initially 400-600 persons to some 3,500 and even 3,800 (±200),
then shra nk back to some 2,000.

At this point I cannot help but point out another huge blooper. As ex¬
plained in Section 26, “Bunker 1” was initially chosen by Hoss and Eichmann
because it allegedly met the needs of Himmler’s purported plans, which fore¬
saw the extermination of 6-7 million Jews at Auschwitz (Bunker 2 was added
several months later due to increased transports). Hoss proudly claimed to
have improved the extermination procedures set up in Auschwitz compared to
those at Treblinka, but with regard to mere numbers, his tale is clearly nonsen¬
sical. Hoss himself stated that Trebli nk a had ten gas chambers for 200 people
each, hence in total 2,000 people, which would have been the same capacity
as the two Birkenau bunkers combined (if we take Hoss’s last version). If we
add to this the capacity of the other two extermination camps, Belzec and So-
bibor, which according to the orthodox narrative could exterminate at least
4,000 people a day, it is incomprehensible why these three camps together -
the “existing extermination sites” in Hoss’s words - should “not have been not
able to carry out the intended large operations,” while Auschwitz is said to
have been capable of accomplishing this.

Since we are on the subject, I may elaborate on a side note. Among the
“improvements” made by Hoss at Auschwitz, so he claimed, was the decep¬
tion of the victims. In his affidavit of April 5, 1946, we read in this regard:
“Still another improvement we made over Tremblinka was that at Tremblinka
the victims almost always knew’ that they were to be exterminated and at
Auschwitz we endeavored to fool the victims into thinking that they were to go
through a debusing process. Of course, frequently they realized our true in¬
tentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties due to that fact. ”

It is clear from this that Hoss had no idea how the gassings at Treblinka are
said to have occurred according to witnesses claims and, based on that, the or¬
thodox narrative, because everyone agrees that a refined procedure was in
place also at this camp in order to deceive the victims. It suffices here to mere¬
ly quote the respective passages of the entry on Treblinka in the Encyclopedia
of the Holocaust : 169

“A camp officer then announced to the arrivals that they had come to a transit
camp from which they were going to be dispersed to various labor camps; for
hygienic reasons, they would now take showers and have their clothes disin¬
fected. Any money and valuables in their possession were to be handed over
for safekeeping and would be returned to them after they had been to the
showers. ”

169 Gutman 1990, Vol. 4, p. pp. 1481-87. Text also quoted in: Graf/Mattogno 2016b, pp. 12f.; this
book contains numerous testimonies describing similar procedures to mislead the victims.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

241

“The gas was introduced by way of pipes attached to the ceilings of the gas
chambers that ended in what looked like shower heads, to create the impres¬
sion that the chambers were merely bathhouses. ”

If this description is truthful and accurate, it would be further proof that Hoss
never set foot in Treblinka.

f) The Bunkers’ Undressing Facilities

The “transcript” of the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946 states:

“In front of the farmhouses, all had to undress behind erected brushwood
screens. ”

A few weeks later, Hoss began to add details to this point in his narration. On
April 1 he stated:

“A. Next to where they undressed in separate shacks next the farm houses.
Later on, in inclement weather other military barracks were constructed for
them. ”

During those days, he told Goldensohn:

“There they were made to undress. At first had to undress in the open, where
we had erected walls made of straw and branches of trees that kept them from
onlookers. After a while we built barracks. ”

While in Poland, the story evolved to its final form. In his essay “The ‘Final
Solution...,’” Hoss added this detail:

“Two barracks for undressing were erected near Bunker I, and three near
Bunker II. ”

g) Number of Victims

During the confrontation between Hoss and Moll of April 16, 1946, the for¬
mer Auschwitz commandant responded to the interrogator’s question:

“How many victims were exterminated in the camp from 1941 on? ”

By stating, among other things:

“The people buried in the two big mass graves of the so-called dugouts; one
and two, amounted to 106,000 or 107,000people. ”

At that time, Hoss claimed that there was a mass grave near each “bunker.”
These two mass graves (which later multiplied to an indefinite number) would
later be used to cremate the corpses:

“At the farmhouse, Bunker No. 2, there were pits steming from mass graves.
The corpses were pulled out of the gas chambers and cremated in these pits. ”

However, Szlama Dragon, the witness par excellence on the Birkenau “bun¬
kers,” claimed in his first interrogation of February 26, 1945 that “Bunker 1”
had four cremation pits, while “Bunker 2” had six of them (Mattogno 2016f,
pp. 74fi).

I will resume analyzing the question of the bunkers’ death toll in Section 29.

242

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

28. Himmler’s Visit to Auschwitz of July 17-18, 1942

Hoss claimed that on July 17, 1942, during Himmler’s two-day visit to Ausch¬
witz, the Reichsfiihrer SS attended the gassing of a transport of Jews in “Bun¬
ker 2”. Hoss’s essay “The ‘Final Solution...’” contains the following brief
remark on this (Broszat 1981, p. 161; Bezwinska/Czech 1984, pp. 116f.):

“On occasion of his visit in the summer of 1942, the Reichsfiihrer SS closely
watched the entire procedure of annihilation, starting with the unloading of
the prisoners to the emptying of Bunker II . ” (My emphasis)

When writing Hi mm ler’s profile, the former Auschwitz commandant was
hardly any more talkative (Broszat 1981, p. 182):

“After visiting Birkenau, he observed the entire extermination procedure of a
transport of Jews that had just arrived . He also watched the selection of those
fit for work for a while without objecting to anything. He did not say anything
about the entire process of extermination; he merely watched silently. ” (My
emphasis)

Although Hoss’s account of Himmler’s visit is very long (Broszat 1981, pp.
181-184), the most fundamental event during that visit, the claimed gassing
episode, is covered by Hoss only in the few lines cited above.

Basing herself exclusively on Hoss’s just-quoted terse statements, Danuta
Czech wrote the following about this alleged event (1989, pp. 250f.):

“After inspecting the Birkenau Camp, he [Himmler] takes part in the killing of
a newly arrived transport of Jews. He is present during the unloading, the se¬
lection of those fit for work, the killing by gas in Bunker No. 2, and the clear¬
ing of the bunker. ”

Tha nk s to her, Hoss’s claim was turned into a well-known and undisputed
fact, superstitiously accepted by all orthodox Holocaust historians without
even the faintest critical reflection. But did that event really take place?

I demonstrated already in 2001 that Hoss’s account is completely refuted
by the documents (Mattogno 2016i, pp. 16-25). I will subsequently reiterate
and deepen my arguments.

The only document relating to Hi mm ler’s visit to Auschwitz is his
Dienstkalender, which for the two days under discussion contains the follow-

• • 170

mg entries:

“Friday, July 17, 1942

12 no trip, Friedrichsruh airport, Lotzen
12 45 takeoff Ld tzen
RFSS,

Prof. Wiist, Kersten,

Grothmann, Kiermeier

170 Dienstkalender (service diary), Heinrich Himmler, NA, RG 242, T-581/R 39A, July 17-18, 1942;
document reproduction in Mattogno 2016i, Doc. 1, p. 118; cf. Witte, pp. 491-495.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

243

15 12 landing, Kattowitz

Pick up Gauleiter Bracht, O ’Gruf Schmauser

and Stubaf. Hoss

Trip to Auschwitz

Tea in the officers ’ quarters

Talk with Stubaf Caesar and O ’Stubaf. Vogel,

Stubaf. Hoss

Inspection of the agricultural operations
Inspection of the prisoners ’ camp and of the FKlJ lli
Dining in the officers ’ quarters

Auschwitz-Kattowitz trip to the residence of Gauleiter Bracht
Evening at Gauleiter Bracht‘s
Saturday July 18, 1942

9 00 breakfast with Gauleiter Bracht and wife

Trip to Auschwitz
Talk with O. Gruf. Schmauser
"Stubaf Caesar

" the Commandant of the FKL [172]

Inspection of the factor)> grounds of the Buna
trip Auschwitz-Kattowitz
13 nn flight, Kattowitz-Krakow-Lublin

15 15 landing, Lublin

Pick up by O. Gruf Kruger and Brigf. Globocnik.

Tea at Globocnik’s
Talk with Staf. Schellenberg
Trip to the Jastrow fruit farm
21 00 talk at Globocnik's with

SS O ’Gruf. Kruger
SS O 'Gruf Pohl
SS Brigf. Globocnik
SS O ’Stuf. Stier. ”

Himmler’s Dienstkalender therefore mentions only an “Inspection of the pris¬
oners’ camp and of the FKL.” The “prisoners’ camp” referred to the Main
Camp, Auschwitz I, in which at that time the women’s concentration camp
(FKL) was located. On the other hand, Birkenau was called “ Kriegsgefangen-
enlager” (prisoner-of-war camp), and thus it is clear that Himmler did not in¬
spect it. Had he done so, his Dienstkalender would have an entry saying “In¬
spection of the prisoner-of-war camp.”

The lack of any such reference is easily explained: Due to the typhus epi¬
demics as well as other infectious diseases raging at that time in Birkenau, the

171 Frauen-Komentrationslager = FKL women’s concentration camp.

172 The gender of the noun indicates that the Commandant was female; translator’s remark.

244

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

hygienic and sanitary conditions there were far more threatening than in the
Main Camp, and a few days later it deteriorated even more. On July 20, Bis-
choff issued (“ Hausvetfiigung ”) No. 40 stating: 173

“On the order of the camp commander, the whole camp has been locked down
with immediate effect as a result of the typhus danger. ”

The Dutch Red Cross has published the transcript of an excerpt from the orig¬
inal roll book which shows the number of inmates held in the men’s camp in
the year 1942. For July 17-18, the excerpt shows the following data: 174

Roll Call

July

1942

Strength

Dead

Registered

Released

AND

Escaped

Origin of
Transport

Reg.-Nos.

-40

+22

morning

16,246

-100

+131

evening

16,277

-30

+601

Westerbork

47087-47687

morning

16,848

-83

+185

var. nation.

47688-47842

evening

16,950

-25

+977

Westerbork

47843-48493

Slovaks

48494-48819

morning

17,902

-101

+46

evening

17,846

-18

+24

var. nation.

48820-48901

morning

17,852

These data are entirely confirmed by the original Starkebuch (census book)
which shows identical changes in camp’s inmate numbers: 175

173 RGVA, 502-1-25, p. 61.

174 Het Nederlandse..., p. 11; reproduced Mattogno 2016i, Doc. 2, p. 119.

175 APMO, Starkebuch, D-Aul-3/1/5, Vol. 2, pp. 163-176; reproduced Mattogno 2016i, Doc. 3, pp.
120 - 122 .

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

245

Roll

Call

July

1941

Strength

Deceased

Registered

Released/

Escaped

-40

+22

morning

16,246

-100

+131

evening

16,277

-30

+601

morning

16,848

-83

+185

evening

16,950

-25

+977

morning

17,902

-101

+46

-1

evening

17,846

-18

+24

morning

17,852

Danuta Czech asserts that on July 17, two Jewish transports arrived together
from the Westerbork camp with 2,000 deportees; 1,251 men were registered
with the numbers 47088-47687, and 300 women with the numbers 8801-8999
and 9027-9127. On July 18, a transport from Slovakia arrived, of which 327
men (48494-48820) and 178 women were registered (9160-9337; Czech 1989,
pp. 250f.). But Czech’s numbers are evidently incorrect. While two transports
with Jews did indeed depart from the Westerbork camp on July 15 and 16
1942, the number of deportees was 1,135 (663 men and 472 women) and 865,
respectively (640 man and 225 women; Het Nederlandse..., pp. 25f.). They
did not arrive at Auschwitz together, but one day apart from each other. Of the
first transport, 601 men were registered receiving the numbers 47087-47687.
From the second transport, 651 men were registered with numbers 47843-
48493. The transport of Slovakian Jews departed from Zilina on July 16 with
1,000 deportees, 176 and arrived at Auschwitz shortly after the second transport
from Westerbork, as is shown by the numbers assigned to them: 48494-48819.

Summing up, the transport departing from Westerbork on July 15 arrived
at Auschwitz after the evening roll call of July 16, yet before the morning roll
call of July 17, as the 601 inmates among them who were registered were in¬
cluded in that roll call, as results from the respective variation: 16,277 - 30
(deaths) + 601 (newly registered arrivals) = 16,848 (morning roll call on July
17).

The transport that left Westerbork on July 16, and the one that left the same
day from Zilina, arrived at Auschwitz after the evening roll call of July 17, yet
before the morning roll call of July 18, in which they were included: 16950 -
25 (deaths) + 977 (newly registered arrivals) = 17,902 (morning roll call on
July 18). The 977 newly registered detainees consisted of 651 Dutch Jews and

176 List of deportation transports of Jews from Slovakia (1942). MA, D.1.5705.

246

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

329 Slovak Jews. The Dutch detainees were registered on July 17, which re¬
sults from a list of names of “Admissions on July 17,1942 committed by the
R.S.H.A.” It contains 651 names of Dutch Jews, corresponding to serial num¬
bers 47843-48493. 177 From this it follows that the transport in question arrived
at Auschwitz on July 17, 1942, after the evening roll call.

At that time, a work day from 6 am to 7 pm, with an hour’s break for
lunch, was in force for prisoners, as ordered by Rudolf Hoss in his special or¬
der of April 17, 1942. 178 Taking into consideration the time needed for the
outside work crews to return to the camp, one can assume with certainty that
the evening roll call did not take place before 8 pm. From this it can be in¬
ferred that the first transport of Dutch Jews cannot have arrived at Auschwitz
before 8 pm, July 16, nor after 6 am, July 17. As already stated, the second
transport of Dutch Jews arrived in the late evening of the 17th, and the
transport from Slovakia did not arrive earlier than 8 pm on July 17, and not
later than 6 am on July 18.

Himmler landed at Kattowitz Airport at 3:15 pm on July 17th, so he could
not have witnessed the first transport of Dutch Jews that was allegedly gassed
before the morning roll call at 6 am.

On July 17, Himmler ‘s visit to Auschwitz ended with a dinner with higher
camp functionaries in the officers’ quarters, probably at about 8 pm. 179 After
dinner, Himmler was accompanied to Kattowitz, where he spent the night as
the guest of Gauleiter Bracht. On the 18th, he was still at Bracht‘s house at 9
am and drove back to Auschwitz only after breakfast. Therefore, he also can¬
not possibly have seen either the second transport of Dutch Jews or the one
from Slovakia, which were allegedly gassed between 8 pm of July 17 and 6
am of July 18. For these reasons, Hi mm ler cannot have attended any homici¬
dal gassing at Auschwitz on July 17 or 18, 1942.

This is even evident from the timing of Hi mm ler’s visit to Auschwitz as
described by Hoss (Broszat 1981, pp. 18If.):

1) “After arriving at the camp, / first had to explain the present condition of
the camp using maps, while at the Fiihrerheim [officers’ mess]. ”

2) “ We subsequently went to the Construction Office, where Kammler, using
maps, blueprints, and models, explained the construction projects planned or
already under construction. ”

3) “ Afterwards trip through the entire area of interest. First the farmyards and
melioration projects, ”

4) “the dam construction, ”

5) “the laboratories and’’

177 RvO, CR26918.

178 Sonderbefehlfur KL. undFKJL, April 17, 1942. RGVA, 502-1-36, p. 121.

179 In Himmler’s diary the time of the evening meal is not indicated. However, during a visit of Os¬
wald Pohl to Auschwitz on the Sept. 23, 1942, the evening meal was served at 8 pm. See further
below.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

247

6) “plant breeding in Raisko, ”

7) “the cattle-breeding and”

8) “the tree nurseries. ”

9) “ Then Birkenau, the Russian Camp, ”

10) “the Gypsy section, ”

11) “and a Jewish section. ”

12) “From the entrance tower, they explained to him the layout of the camp
and the drainage system under construction, and also the intended exten¬
sions. ”

13) “He watched the prisoners at work, ”

14) “inspected [inmate] lodgings,”

15) “the kitchens, ”

16) “and the sick bays. ” [...]

17) “Himmler also saw [...] the overcrowded barracks, ”

18) “saw the primitive and inadequate toilet and wash facilities. ”

19) “From the physicians he heard about the high rates of sickness and death,
and most of all about their causes. ”

Several lines further down, Hoss then describes Himmler’s alleged attendance
of a gassing as already quoted:

20) “After visiting Birkenau, he obseiwed the entire extermination procedure
of a transport of Jews that had just arrived . He also watched the selection of
those fit for work for a while without objecting to anything. He did not say an¬
ything about the entire process of extermination; he merely watched silently. ”

Himmler landed at Kattowitz at 3:15 pm and was welcomed by Bracht,
Schmauser and Hoss. After these formalities, he left for Auschwitz. The dis¬
tance between Kattowitz and Auschwitz is about 35 km; considering the roads
and cars of the time, Himmler arrived at Auschwitz around 4 pm. Here he was
welcomed at the Fuhrerheim, the SS officers’ building, where he had a meet¬
ing with Caesar, Vogel and Hoss while having tea. SS Sturmbannfuhrer Joa¬
chim Caesar was the head of the camp’s agricultural department, SS Ober-
sturmbannfuhrer Heinrich Vogel directed Office W-V (agriculture, forestry,
fisheries) of the WVHA. This was followed by the actual visit to the camp fa¬
cilities, which ended with dinner at the Fuhrerheim, followed by his return to
Kattowitz for the night.

When Pohl visited Auschwitz a couple of months later, on September 23,
followed by a camp tour that was somewhat similar to the one indicated by
Hoss for Himmler, Pohl’s visit lasted four hours (“Duration of the inspection 4
hours”). The dinner at the Fuhrerheim began at 8 pm. 180

It can therefore be concluded that Himmler’s inspection also lasted for a
maximum of four hours, beginning after 4 pm and ending at about 8 pm. Con-

180 “Besichtigung des SS-Obergruppenfuhrers Pohl am 23.9.1942”. RGVA, 502-1-19, p. 86.

248

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

sidering the many sites he inspected and the meetings he had, his visit was al¬
ready very tightly scheduled.

At the end of the long list of “normal” activities of his visit - after observ¬
ing overcrowded barracks, primitive toilet and wash facilities in Birkenau, and
discussing with physicians illnesses and mortality, Himmler is said to have
watched the gassing of a transport of Jews that had just arrived. Hoss specifi¬
cally insists on this: “a transport of Jews that had just arrived.” Himmler, Hoss
stated, attended the entire procedure, “starting with the unloading of the pris¬
oners to the emptying of Bunker II,” meaning he attended all the essential
phases of this event as listed by Czech:

“He is present [ 1 ] during the unloading, [2] the selection of those fit for work,

[3] the killing by gas in Bunker No. 2, and [4] the clearing of the bunker. ”

[1] As shown earlier, the first train with Jews from Westerbork arrived at
Auschwitz between 8 pm on July 16 and 6 am on July 16; the second train
from Holland arrive in the late evening of July 17, while the train from Slo¬
vakia arrived sometime between 8 pm of July 17 and 6 am of July 18. The
transport claimed by Hoss, on the other hand, would have arrived in the after¬
noon of July 18, sometime between 4 pm and 8 pm. So even Hoss’s claimed
arrival time of this transport (which of the three?) is purely fictitious.

[2] In Section 16, I explained the function and location of the “old ramp”
of Birkenau. The three trains in question were unloaded there, and the “selec¬
tion” of those fit for work would have taken place there as well. According to
Hoss, the selection was performed by two doctors. Czech informs that “the
unloading of a train took 4 to 5 hours” (Czech 1964, Note 80, p. 97). After
disembarking, the deportees had to pass before the two doctors.

[3] After this “selection,” those unfit for work had to walk from the “old
ramp” to “Bunker 2,” which was at a distance of just over one and a half kil¬
ometers (roughly a mile). Once there, the future victims had to undress, after
which they were forced into “Bunker 2.”

[4] “After half an hour, the doors were re-opened [...and] the dead bodies
were dragged out”, writes Hoss in his essay “The ‘Final Solution...’” Clearing
hundreds of corpses from a gas chamber that is filled with noxious gasses but
has no ventilation system would have taken hours.

If we believe Hoss, Himmler watched all this. The train full of Jews would
have “just arrived,” hence at the end of Himmler’s inspection tour just before
8 pm. But the whole procedure, from unloading the deportees from the trains
to the removal of the corpses from “Bunker 2”,” would have been difficult to
wrap up in less than six to seven hours, so it would have ended in the early
hours of the morning of July 18th. Himmler, however, had his dinner at the
Fuhrerheim at around 8 pm on that day. Consequently, he cannot have attend¬
ed any gassing such as described by Hoss, and this is further proof that Hoss’s
tale is false.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

249

Hoss’s claim is as absurd as would be the hypothetical assertion that Pohl,
who began his tour at 2 pm with the inspection of the butchery, and who, after
four hours of visit, shortly before 6 pm, when he had a “Final discussion of all
departments involved at the Fiihrerheim,” is said to have attended the whole
process of the gassing of a transport of Jews.

What I have outlined above is further confirmed by indirect evidence: the
absence of any document relating to Flimmler’s visit to Auschwitz.

Pohl’s visit of September 23, 1942 left behind an abundant documentation
in the archives of the Auschwitz Camp (but with no reference to the claimed
extermination):

1) “Report on the inspection of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp by SS
Obergruppenfiihrer Pohl on September 23, [19]42” (Bartosik et al., pp. 123f.).

2) “Participants at the meeting on occasion of the presence of SS Ober-
gruppenfiihrer Pohl”, Sept. 23, 1942. 181

3) “Report on the contents of the final discussion of the Plead of the [Eco¬
nomic and Administrative] Main Office, SS Obergruppenfiihrer Pohl, with all
SS officers of the Auschwitz CC on Sept. 23, 1942”. 182

4) “Inspection by SS Obergruppenfiihrer Pohl on Sept. 23, 1942”. 183

5) “Minutes of the meeting on occasion of the visit of SS Obergruppenfiih¬
rer Pohl in the ‘House of the Waffen SS’ in Auschwitz on Sept. 23, 1942.” 184

If Pohl’s one-day visit resulted in the creation of all these documents, how
many must have been produced by the two-day visit of Himmler’s, who was
his direct superior?

Many other senior SS officers (including once again Pohl on June 16,
1944) visited Auschwitz before and after Himmler’s visit, and their visits were
all carefully documented. 185

It may therefore be considered a fact that the documents relating to Himm¬
ler’s visit were suppressed or even destroyed by the Soviets or by the Poles,
precisely because they refute the story about the alleged gassing.

That Hoss’s account contains completely invented elements ultimately re¬
sults from yet another anachronism. In his “autobiography,” always referring
to Himmler’s visit of July 17, 1942, Hoss wrote:

" I showed him the g vpsv camp in detail . He looked at everything thoroughly,
saw the crowded barracks, the insufficient hygienic conditions, the fully occu¬
pied hospital barracks, saw those sick with epidemic diseases, saw the child¬
hood disease Noma . [...]. He learned about the mortality figures which, com¬
pared to the entire camp, were still relatively low. But child mortality’ was ex-

181 RGVA, 502-1-19, p. 94.

182 Ibid ., pp. 95f.

183 Ibid ., pp. 86f.

184 Ibid., pp. 97-101.

185 See Mattogno 2015d, Chapter 19.2., “Visits to Auschwitz by High-Ranking SS Officers,” pp. 642-
652.

250

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

tremely high. [...] He saw everything exactly and truthfully — and save us the
order to exterminate them , after those fit to work had been selected, as with
the Jews. ” (My emphasis)

During his trial in Warsaw, Hoss confirmed that Himmler had observed “the
unsustainable conditions prevailing in Birkenau in the so-called Gypsy
Camp,” and reported Himmler’s reaction:

Regarding the conditions at the Gypsy camp, which were particularly cata¬
strophic, [Himmler] told me very severely: ‘You have to be exterminate them
immediately.

He moreover made the following comment:

“I only saw this mouth cancer on Gypsy children who were at the so-called in¬
firmary in the Gypsy camp. Himmler also saw this Noma disease , then gave
the order to the doctor who was dealing with these issues, as far as I remem¬
ber Mengele, to kill these children immediately. That was in 1942 . ” (My em¬
phasis)

Hoss’s profile on Himmler contains another repetition of this story. In July
1942, Himmler visited the Birkenau camp, where he observed “the Gypsy sec¬
tion” and “saw the child killer Noma.” The next day, Himmler allegedly or¬
dered Hoss:

“The Gypsies are to be exterminated. The Jews unfit for work are to be exter¬
minatedjust as ruthlessly. ”

The fact is, however, that the first transport of Gypsies arrived at Auschwitz
on February 26, 1943, and the Gypsy Camp was established only on that occa¬
sion (Czech 1989, p. 423). Not even the evasive maneuver is possible that
Hoss might have confused the dates, because Himmler’s second visit to
Auschwitz on July 17-18, 1942 was also his last one.

From what can be inferred from the very few documents that have re¬
mained, the Reichsfiihrer SS was particularly concerned with agriculture at
Auschwitz (he had two talks with SS Sturmbannfuhrer Joachim Caesar), and
he ordered the extension of the Birkenau Camp to accommodate 200,000 de¬
tainees (see Section 32), which certainly does not in any way, shape or form
support the hypothesis that any kind of extermination was going on at Ausch¬
witz.

29. Outdoor Cremations

Even before the extermination of the Jews is said to have begun, some of the
prisoners who had died in the camp were buried in Birkenau. These corpses
were later exhumed and cremated outdoors along with the corpses of those al¬
legedly gassed. Hoss related this story already in his deposition in Nuremberg:

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

251

“Kauffmann: Did not, at an earlier period of time — that is, before the begin¬
ning of this special extermination action — something of this nature take place
to remove people who had died in a normal manner in Auschwitz?

At his trial in Warsaw, he declared:

“The first crematorium was not enough for the number of corpses in the camp,
and for this reason all those who died at Birkenau were buried in mass sraves .
Until the fall of 1942, even those who early on had been poisoned in the bun¬
kers were buried in this way. In these mass graves — now I remember exactly
the number — 107,000 people were buried within seven weeks . They were those
who had died inside the camp, and hence the transports that were exterminat¬
ed in these early bunkers. ” (My emphasis)

The seven-week period is chronologically absurd because the orthodox narra¬
tive has it that the corpses of those allegedly gassed were buried in mass
graves from spring to late summer of 1942. The figure of 107,000 corpses,
which initially referred only to claimed gassing victims, then also encom¬
passed the deceased registered detainees.

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss mentions the same figure:

“The number of corpses buried in the mass graves was 107,000. This figure
not only includes the transports of Jews gassed from the start up to the begin¬
ning of the cremations, but also the corpses of inmates who died in Auschwitz
in the winter of 1941/42, when the crematorium near the hospital building was
inoperational for a longer period of time. It also includes all the deceased
prisoners of the Birkenau camp. ”

As long as Hoss was in the hands of the British and Americans, he did not
care to explain when, why or on whose order the outdoor cremations began.
At that time, those cremations were related in his mind to the “bunkers,” but
not even in this regard did he have any clear ideas. Contradicting himself, he
even claimed that the corpses were first cremated, but later buried.

In his handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, he asserted that the corps¬
es were “burned in pits in the ground,” a procedure lasting “6-7 hours.”

His American interrogators he told the same tale on April 1, 1946:

“Behind the farmhouses there were open pits in which the bodies were burned.

[...]

That was another commando of inmates who took care of that work. They
would be put on a truck and thrown into these pits where they were burned. ”

To Goldensohn, Hoss stated while talking about the “farmhouses” that

252

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“when I saw that the crematory could not be erected fast enough to keep up
with the ever-increasing numbers exterminated, we started to burn the corpses
in open ditches like in Treblinka. A layer of wood, then a layer of corpses, an¬
other layer of corpses [sic; probably: wood], et cetera.

The cremation technique described is foolish, unless Hoss had access to cata¬
pults in order to throw additional corpses “on the fire,” because it is physically
impossible to get within a few meters to the edge of such an infernal burning
pit without sustaining lethal burns.

In Hoss’s statements made while in Poland, all references to outdoor cre¬
mations disappear. In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss maintains that
outdoor cremations were not even part of the original plans:

“The bodies were to be placed into long, deep pits dug in the adjacent mead¬
ows. At that point in time we had not yet thought of incineration. ”

During his trial, Hoss confirmed this new version:

“Until that time, until this exhumation in early fall of 1942, cremations had
not yet been carried out. Only then, at this time, those who had just been
gassed were cremated together with those who had been exhumed from the
mass graves. ”

In his deposition at the Nuremberg trial, Hoss contradicted this diametrically
by stating:

“Yes, when the crematoria had not yet been built we burned in larse pits a
large part of those who had died and who could not be cremated in the provi¬
sional crematoria of the camp; a large number — I do not recall the figure any¬
more — were placed in mass graves and later also cremated in these graves.
That was before the mass executions of Jews besan . ” (My emphasis)

This means that this allegedly happened prior to January 1942.

Yet on April 30, 1946, Hoss stated:

“The order of the burning of these bodies came into two parts:

(a) A general order for the burning from the Reichsfuehrer himself.

(b) A special order from Obersturmbannfuehrer Eichmann from the Jews
Ampt. [Amt] 4. R.S.H.A.. ”

While in Poland, Hoss enriched the story of Himmler’s alleged cremation or¬
der and replaced Blobel with Eichmann in his essay “The ‘Final Solution... ’”:
“During the summer of 1942 the bodies were still being placed in the mass
graves. Only toward the end of the summer did we start with the burnings, at
first on piles of wood bearing some 2,000 corpses, and later in pits together

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

253

with bodies previously buried. In the early days oil refuse was poured on the
bodies, but later methanol was used. [...]

Shortly after the visit of the Reichsfiihrer SS, Standartenfuhrer Blobel arrived
from Eichmann ’s office with an order from the Reichsfiihrer SS stating that all
the mass graves were to be opened and the corpses burnt. In addition the ash¬
es were to be disposed of in such a way that it would be impossible at some fu¬
ture time to calculate the number of corpses burnt.

In summary,

1. During his visit to Auschwitz on July 17-18, 1942, Hi mm ler decided that
the corpses buried in mass graves ought to be cremated.

2. Shortly afterwards, therefore supposedly in the second half of July, Blobel
went to Auschwitz and brought to Hoss the cremation order issued by the
Reichsfiihrer SS.

3. Then Hoss went to Chelmno to learn the techniques of outdoor cremation
that Blobel was experimenting with (who was not “from Eichmann’s of¬
fice” with whom he had nothing to do).

The fact is, however, that the claim about Himmler’s decision is merely an ut¬
terly unsubstantiated conjecture, and Blobel’s alleged visit to Auschwitz is
pure fantasy. There does indeed exist a “Report on the Mission to Litzmann-
stadt” written by SS Untersturmfuhrer Walter Dejaco on September 17, 1942,
about his visit to a “special facility” made the day before by him, Hoss and SS
Untersturmfuhrer Franz Hossler. It is also true that its “travel permit” issued
for that trip indicates as the purpose of travel the “Inspection of the experi¬
mental station for field furnaces Operation Reinhard,” but Chelmno (or Kulm-
hof) is not mentioned anywhere and, as I have explained elsewhere, 186 the visit
in question had no relation to the cremation of coipses.

Hoss’s claimed visit to Chelmno (to which I will return in the following
section) is also contradictory and senseless, because Hoss claimed that he had
previously observed the cremation technique adopted at Treblinka.

During his trial in Warsaw he asserted:

186 Mattogno/Kues/Graf 2014, Vol. II, pp. 918-937; 2015, Vol. II, pp. 1203-1212.

254

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“I only know Chelmno, Treblinka and Auschwitz. I saw the cremation. By or¬
der of the Reichsfuhrer, Globel [Blobel] had been assigned the task of locating
mass graves and totally eliminating their traces. In this context, he ordered me
to visit Chelmno in order to observe the experiments that were carried out
right there to eliminate these mass graves. There they worked with fame-
throwers, chemicals and explosives, even with various types of furnaces used
for cremation. For example, there were furnaces utilized as field furnaces, or
they cremated with the aid of wood soaked with gasoline. At Tremblinka [sic],
the corpses I saw and which came from the gas chamber, as well as those who
had been left for months in large pits [and that] were pulled out by excavators,
[were put] on pyres [made] of railroad tracks the burning fire was mixed

with wood, and oil was again poured over it, and it was soaked with gasoline.
Initially, only a few pyres and crematories were used in Auschwitz, and crema¬
tions were carried out in this way in pits. ”

The cremation technique using railroad tracks, also called “grate cremation
method” by the Holocaust orthodoxy, is said to have been conceived by
Blobel and then adopted in “Operation Reinhardt” camps (Belzec, Sobibor
and Treblinka), hence Hoss had the privilege of seeing the technique in opera¬
tion before it had been invented!

However, when Hoss was a prisoner of the Americans, he did not yet kn ow
anything about this. To Goldensohn he said that Auschwitz began to cremate
the corpses “in open ditches like in Treblinka,” that is, with this technique: “a
layer of wood, then a layer of corpses, another layer of corpses [sic; probably:
wood], and so on.”

After seeing the cremation technique at Treblinka, what was the need to go
to Chelmno? The alleged visit was also useless with regards to the results.
“Blobel had various makeshift furnaces constructed,” but on his return to
Auschwitz, Hoss did not build a single one of them (and did not even intro¬
duce cremations “on a framework made of railway tracks” as they were alleg¬
edly used in Treblinka), but rather cremations on “piles of wood.” Blobel used
“a bone mill” to crush cremation remains, while Auschwitz adopted a primi¬
tive system, as results from the “transcript” of Hoss’s handwritten statement
of March 14, 1946:

“After cleaning out the pits, the remaining ashes were crushed. This happened
on a cement slab where inmates pulverized the remaining bones with wooden
pounders ”

The existence of this “cement slab” is pure imagination; no documentary evi¬
dence or material remains exist in this regard. In the inmates’ imagination, the
“bone mill” assumed a metaphorical meaning. During Hoss’s trial in Warsaw,
for instance, witness Antoni Hrebich claimed that, when he was deported from

187 In his essay “The ‘Final Solution..Hoss uses the expression “auf einem Schienengestell'
“on a rail rack”, meaning a framework made of railway tracks.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

255

Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, the SS told him that this camp was a “bone
mill.” 188

In the same text appears moreover the well-known absurdity of the recov¬
ery of molten human fat from the cremation pits:

"The fat collecting at the bottom of the pit was poured back into the fire with
buckets in order to accelerate the incineration process particularly during wet
weather. ”

I have investigated that claim at length in a dedicated study, to which I refer
(Mattogno 2014b).

From Hoss’s unspecific phrase “toward the end of the summer did we start
with the burnings” With ineffable exegesis, Danuta Czech extracted the exact
date of September 21, 1942! (Czech 1989, p. 305)

In its most recent elaborations, the Auschwitz Museum has abandoned two
pivotal points of Hoss’s statements. Piotr Setkiewicz claimed that the begin¬
ning of outdoor cremation in Auschwitz was not due to an order given by
Himmler after his visit to Auschwitz, but the consequence of the health hazard
posed by the mass graves which threatened to pollute the groundwater. Out¬
door cremation, however, did not begin towards the end of summer or “early
in the fall of 1942,” but between the end of August and the beginning of Sep¬
tember, Setkiewicz claims. But this new version is just as devoid of any sub-

• • 1RQ

stantiation.

30. Hoss’s Visit to Chelmno

Reading Hoss’s statements made to the British and Americans, it looks like he
had no knowledge yet about Chelmno, as this camp was never mentioned by
him. He mentioned it only after having arrived in Poland, although in a con¬
tradictory way. In his essay “The ‘Final Solution... ’” we read:

"On my visit to Culmhof / also saw the extermination devices with the trucks,
which was designed to kill by using the exhaust gases from the engines. The of¬
ficer in charge there, however, described this method as being extremely unre¬
liable, for the gas developed only erratically and was often insufficient to be
lethal. ”

“I myself have only seen Culmhof and Treblinka. Culmhof had ceased to be
used, [...]" (My emphasis)

According to the first statement, the camp was evidently still in operation:
Hoss “saw the extermination devices with the trucks,” hence the alleged “gas
vans,” and spoke with the “officer in charge.” In my previous article I already
pointed out this contradiction (Mattogno 1987, p. 18). The peculiar objection

188 United Nations Archives. Security Microfilm Program, 1988, Reel No. 62. Hoss Trial, 15th Hear¬
ing, p. 1583.

189 See in this regard Mattogno 2016e, pp. 62-66; 2015a, chapter on wood deliveries, pp. 53-66.

256

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

that, at the time of Hoss’s visit, Chelmno was indeed no longer in operation
because the deportations of Jews had ended before Hoss’s visit, I addressed
appropriately elsewhere (Mattogno/Kues/Graf 2015, Vol. II, pp. 1207-1210).
Here I add only that the author of the largest orthodox study on the Chelmno
Camp gives as the last transport of 1942 the one containing 6,000 Jews from
Zelow, which arrived at Chelmno on September 14 (Montague, p. 187). I just
referred to Dejaco’s “Report on the Mission to Litzmannstadt,” which is dated
Sept. 17, 1942, concerning a trip to Litzmannstadt (Lodz) on the day before:
this would have been the exact date of Hoss’s visit to Chel mn o: September 16,
1942.

In the written verdict of March 30, 1963, in the trial against the SS Sonder-
kommando (special unit) of Chelmno, the Bonn Jury Court stated that three
“gas vans” were deployed at that camp, two small ones with a capacity of 50
people, and a third larger one for 70 people. Every day these “gas vans” made
five to ten execution trips (Rtickerl, p. 272). This corresponds to a maximum
extermination capacity of ([50 + 50 + 70] x 10 =) 1,700 per day, so that the
extermination of all the 6,000 people deported from Zelow would have taken
just under four days at best. On September 16, when Hoss allegedly arrived,
not more than 3,400 would have been killed, while at least 2,600 more were
still awaiting their grizzly fate.

Hence, the contradiction I have reported is real: on September 16, 1942
Chelmno was in full operation, but at the same time “Culmhof had ceased to
be used,” if we are to believe Hoss.

31. The Crematoria at Birkenau

Let’s start by listing the dates when each of the Birkenau crematoria became
operational (based on the date when the buildings were officially handed over
to the camp administration):

- Crematorium II: March 31, 1943

- Crematorium III: June 25, 1943

- Crematorium IV: March 22, 1943

- Crematorium V: April 4, 1943.

Hoss must have been aware of these dates, or at least the year and probably al¬
so roughly the month.

Yet still, in the manuscript of March 14, 1946 he claimed that the “crema¬
toria were finished only in 1942.” The “transcript” changed that as follows:

“After the first 2 large-scale crematoria had been finished in 1942 (the 2 oth¬
ers were finished half a year later), [...]’’

Since the “large-scale crematoria” were Crematoria II and III, this means that
these were completed in 1942, while Crematoria IV and V were completed six
months later!

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

257

On April 1, 1946, Hoss had already changed his story:

“A. All four were finished in 1943. We were already functioning in 1942.

Q. When in 1942 was the first one put into use? It was there already, perhaps,
in November of 1941?

A. No, 1942.

Q. So these gas chamber, the provincial [provisional] gas chambers, were
used from the summer of 1941 up until 1942.

A. November of 1942. They were also used later on whenever the crematori¬
ums were insufficient to handle the work. ”

The next day, Hoss stated that the first crematorium had come into operation
in October 1942:

“Q. And if I remember correctly you said that the gassing took place in Ausch¬
witz in the two farm houses until end of1942?

A. Yes, but in the meantime one permanent crematorium was finished.

Q. When?

A. This was already finished a little before that time, about October 1942 . so
that they conducted this partly in the crematorium, and partly in the farm
houses, but there was no definite separation. [...]

Q. We will leave this topic for a moment, and go back to October, 1942, when
the first permanent plants had been installed?

A. Yes.

Q. Where were the plants located?

A. In Birkenau. ” (My emphasis)

To Goldensohn, the former Auschwitz commandant said:

“ In 1942 the great crematoriums were completed and the whole process was
then done in the new buildings ” (My emphasis)

But Hoss’s self-contradictions do not end there. In his essay “The ‘Final Solu¬
tion...,’” he spoke in general terms of a sixth crematorium that was under
construction in 1944:

“Another facility far exceeding those under construction was devised later but
was never realized, for in the autumn of 1944, the Reichsfiihrer SS ordered an
immediate halt to the extermination of the Jews. ”

During the trial, he provided some clarification:

“With regard to Eichmann’s consideration that, from the end of 1944 and dur¬
ing 1945, even more intensive transports had to be expected, it was planned to
create still larger crematoria, that is to say, this was conceived in the form of
a huge brick furnace with a circular muffle which was to be installed under-
ground. But this facility was never even designed because there was no time
for it. ”

But such a facility, called an “annular cremation furnace” (“ Ring-Einasche-
rungs-Ofen”), appears only in a letter from the Topf Company to the Ausch-

258

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

witz Central Construction Office of February 5, 1943 (Mattogno/Deana, Vol.
I, p. 290). Caused by the catastrophic typhus epidemic ravaging the camp
population in late 1942 and early 1943, it never went beyond the initial project
stage and was therefore never even designed, let alone built, and most certain¬
ly not in 1944.

A letter from Bischoff to Floss dated February 12, 1943 mentions “the
planning of a 6th crematorium” (“D/e Planting eines 6. Krematoriums”), defi¬
ned as “an open incineration chamber” (“eine offene Verbrenmmgskammer”)
and also “open incineration site” (“ Offene Verbrenmingsstatte”; ibid., Vol. I,
p. 289; Vol. II, Doc. 243, p. 403). This project, triggered by the same events as
the one just mentioned, also remained a dead letter.

These documents sparked the imagination of the Poles, and this had its ob¬
vious impact on Hoss’s statements.

As pointed out in Part One, the expert Dawidowski attributed to the second
project the crazy cremation capacity of 7 million corpses per year during the
Warsaw Hoss Trial! Following Hoss’s nonsensical statements, Investigating
Judge Jan Sehn attributed these projects to the summer of 1944 (Sehn, p. 141):

“The method of burning a large number of bodies in open pits, as used in Au¬
gust 1944, proved to be quickest and most economical. Thus the crematoria
stopped working and only the pits were used. The sixth crematorium, as in¬
cluded in the plans for extending the camp, was to be based on the principle of
burning corpses in open pits. In the correspondence with Topf's, reference is
made to ‘grosser Ring-Einascherungsofen ’, ‘offene Verbrenmmgskammer ’,
and ‘offene Verbrennungsstatte ’. The crematorium was to be a reheating fur¬
nace which would couple the enormous capacity of pits with the economy of
crematoria ovens fitted with rational hearths. That enabled the wood piles
used in pits to be replaced with a small quantity of coke ot coal. ”

This imposture was subsequently revived and upheld even by Franciszek Pip¬
er, who reiterated (Piper 1994, pp. 175f.):

“The project was brought up again in 1944 in connection with Eichmann’s
forecasts of news transports due to arrive in late 1944 and early 1945. Ac¬
cording to Hoss’s testimony, work on the construction of large crematoria was
about to begin. He described them as projected to be built ‘in the shape of a
huge brickworks with a ring furnace ’. ”

Since both Sehn and Piper had access to the original documents; this was a de¬
liberate imposture.

Among the many gaps in Hoss’s reconstruction of the history of the
Auschwitz Camp, one of the most serious is the one related to the genesis of
Birkenau crematoria. As shown earlier, Hoss made conflicting claims on this:
on the one hand, the first crematoria was the first extermination project initial¬
ly agreed upon with Eichmann; on the other hand, this role was borne by the
“bunkers,” and the crematoria were relegated to the background. “Bunker 1”

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

259

is said to have been sufficient for small transports sent to Auschwitz in the
spring of 1942; when these transports intensified during the summer, Hoss set
up “Bunker 2.”

The construction of Crematorium II was actually started on June 2, 1942
with the construction pit ( Baugrube ), while work on Crematorium III began
on September 14, 1942 (Mattogno/Deana, Vol. I, p. 232, 234).

Contrary to Hoss’s imaginative statements, the new crematorium was not
intended for extermination, but was planned for a camp (Birkenau) which was
slated to accommodate 120,000 Russian prisoners of war. 190 On June 29,
1942, Himmler decided to increase the camp’s inmate population to
150,000. 191

Hoss says absolutely nothing about the other three crematoria: why on
whose order were they built? With what specifications was their cremation
capacity calculated?

In two other studies, 192 1 have documented that the genesis of the Birkenau
crematoria was correlated to the planned expansion of the camp’s inmate pop¬
ulation to 200,000 detainees, and to the catastrophic typhus epidemic that
broke out in the camp at the beginning of July 1942. Some further clarification
is appropriate here.

Bischoff s letter of August 3, 1942 to Office C of the WVHA imparted that
it had been decided to move the new crematorium to the “quarantine camp” (a
sector of the Birkenau Camp), and Bischoff added: 193

“On the occasion of the Reichsfiihrer’s visit on July 17 and 18, 1942, the ex¬
pansion of the planning was submitted to the head of Office Group C SS Bri-
gadefuhrer and Major General of the Waffen-SS Dr. Ing. Kammler, and it is
asked to approve this on 1 copy of the enclosed situation map and to return the
same as soon as possible. ”

The subject of the letter was “Situation Map of the Birkenau PoW Camp,”
hence the Birkenau planimetries of August 15, 1942, which included four sec¬
tors, three for 60,000 inmates each, and one for 20,000, in total 200,000 (Pres-
sac 1989, p. 203). Precisely due to this envisioned increase in occupancy, the
plan provided for two crematoria, the future Crematoria II and III, as the new
crematorium was originally planned for an occupancy of 120,000 detainees.

190 RGVA, 502-1-55, p. 64. Letter by Bischoff to “Heeres-Pionier-Park” of Cosel with the subject
“Lieferung von Stacheldraht.”

191 GARF, 7021-108-32, p. 34. Letter by Bischoff to Office C V of the WVHA dated June 29, 1942.

192 Mattogno 2015d, pp. 464-470; Mattogno 2016a, pp. 157-163.

193 GARF, 7021-108-32, p. 37.

260

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

32. The Cremation Furnaces

a) Number of Furnaces

Crematoria II and III each had five Topf triple-muffle cremation furnaces
( Dreimuffel-Einascherungsofen ), hence altogether 30 muffles; Crematoria IV
and V each had one Topf 8-muffle cremation furnace ( Achtmuffeleinascher-
ungsofen ); this model consisted of two adjacent blocks of four muffles with a
large central gasifier. 194 Hoss must have known these elementary features.

In his manuscript of March 14, 1946, he stated the following:

“There were 2 facilities with 5 double furnaces at Auschwitz
2 facilities w/[ith] 4 lame furnaces each. ” (My emphasis)

In other words, he claimed that Crematoria II & III each had five furnaces
with two instead of three muffles each, hence 20 altogether, while Crematoria
IV and V had each four furnaces, or eight in all. If considering that the actual
furnaces were two separate blocks of four muffles each, these two crematoria
actually had 2 furnaces each with four muffles, hence four furnaces in all.

In his interrogation on April 2, 1946, Hoss confirmed that the large crema¬
toria (II and III) had “five double furnaces.” When confronted by Moll on
April 16, he reiterated the first mistake and corrected the second:

"The two large units were made up offive double furnaces each and the others
of four double furnaces each. ”

The two blocks forming the 8-muffle furnaces actually consisted of two pairs
of muffles arranged in reverse order, 195 therefore, though not quite correct, on
could talk about four double furnaces each.

Even when talking to Goldensohn, the former Auschwitz commandant
spoke of five furnaces with two muffles each:

“There were five double stoves. ”

While in Poland, Hoss suddenly recovered his memory: Crematoria II and III
“had five triple-muffle furnaces,” and Crematoria IV and V possessed “two 4-
muffle furnaces each,” that is, as just explained, two blocks with 4 muffles
each.

b) Cremation Capacity

The handwritten statement of March 14, 1946 provides the first statement in
this regard regarding Crematoria II & III:

“The cremation of some 2000 people in 5 furnaces takes some 12 hours . ” (My
emphasis)

194 In Mattogno/Deana, I outlined the history of these cremation devices and described their structure
(Vol. I, Section II, Chapters 6f., pp. 212-292).

195 Ibid., Vol. II, Documents 238-240, pp. 400f., my reconstruction of this device.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

261

That means 4,000 corpses in 24 hours for each of Crematoria II and III. This
was repeated by Hoss in the interview of April 2:

“they could burn two thousand human beings in twelve hours. ”

The handwritten note of April 23 contains the first major change in this re¬
gard:

“There were 5 facilities at Birkenau. 2 large crematoria with a capacity of
2,000 people each within 24 hours, meaning that up to 2,500 people could be
killed in the gas room, [and] within 24 hours, at most 2,000 could be cremated
in 5 double furnaces (heated with coke). 2 smaller facilities with 4 larger dou¬
ble furnaces could eradicate some 1,500 people. ”

The cremation capacity of Crematoria II and III was thus halved: there are still
2,000 corpses, but no longer within 12 hours, but within 24 hours.

The capacity of Crematoria IV and V was clearly calculated based on that
of Crematoria II and III, but on the assumption that each of the latter had 10
muffles rather than 15. Purely arithmetically speaking, the result would be
(2,000 -M0 x 8 =) 1,600, which was rounded to 1,500. If we were to use the
actual number of muffles (15), the result would be (2,000 M5 x 8 =) 1,066.

After he had been extradited to Poland, Hoss settled on the final version of
his story: Crematoria II and III “could each cremate about 2,000 bodies within
twenty-four hours,” and Crematoria IV and V “each [...] 1,500 bodies within
twenty-four hours.” While Hoss corrected his earlier mistake about the num¬
ber of muffles (three muffles instead of two in each furnaces of Crematoria II
& III), he forgot to adjust the cremation capacity of the second pair of crema¬
toria, which remained at 1,500 corpses in 24 hours. He pointed out in this re¬
spect, though:

“The facilities III and IV should have been able to cremate 1,500 bodies in 24
hours; as far as I know, these figures were never attained. ”

Though moderate compared to the hyperbolic data given by other witnesses, 196
Hoss’s data are still very much exaggerated, even if compared with some doc¬
uments containing dubious contents that are taken at face value by orthodox
holocaust historians.

A letter of the Central Construction Office of June 28, 1943 attributes a ca¬
pacity of 1,440 corpses per day to five triple-muffle furnaces muffles (Crema¬
toria II & III) and 768 to one eight-muffle furnace (Crematorium IV & V). 197
The note by the Topf engineer Kurt Priifer of September 8, 1942 states ab¬
surdly that the five triple-muffle furnaces and the 8-muffle furnaces had the

196 The “Sonderkommando” witnesses mentioned ridiculously exaggerated figures. See Mattogno
2015d, p. 319, a summary table of cremation capacities claimed by witnesses and experts. The
highest figure (witness Chybinski) is 66,650 corpses per day!

197 See Mattogno/Deana, Vol. II, Docs. 248, 248a, pp. 409f. (reproduction of the document) and Vol.
1, Section II, Chapter 9.6., pp. 341-344 (discussion of the document).

262

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

same daily cremation capacity: 800 corpses. 198 This is the only known docu¬
ment by the Topf company that mentions the cremation capacity of the 8-
muffle furnace, which means that the following phrase by Hoss is clearly
false:

“ According to calculations by the construction firm Topf of Erfurt, the two
smaller Crematoria III and IV should each have been able to burn 1,500
[corpses] within 24 hours. ’’ (My emphasis)

I showed earlier what the true origin of the figure 1,500 is. In his essay “The
‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss gave further indications that allow us to assess his
figures mathematically:

“Depending on the composition of the bodies, up to three corpses were put in¬
to one furnace muffle. The duration of the cremation was also determined by
the composition of the bodies. It lasted on average 20 minutes. As previously
stated, Crematoria I and II could cremate about 2,000 bodies in 24 hours;
more was not possible without causing damage. ”

During the interrogation of April 2, 1946, Hoss said:

“This double furnace could take in three corpses at one time. ”

While keeping in mind that the cremation of three corpses in 20 minutes in the
kind of muffle installed at Auschwitz is thermo-technically impossible, even
absurd, the following hypothetically results from these data:

1,440 min/d 20 m in x 15 muffles x 2 corpses = 2,160 coipses per 24 hours
1,440 min/d = 20 min x 15 muffles x 3 corpses = 3,240 coipses per 24 hours

Only the first figure is roughly compatible with the one attributed by Hoss to
Crematoria II and III.

Hoss’s total cremation capacity is therefore 7,000 corpses per day, 4,000 of
them in Crematoria II & III, and 3,000 in Crematoria IV & V. Hoss explicitly
stated that this limit could not be exceeded for thermos-technical reasons. In
his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss elaborated:

“For reasons of cremation technology, it was not possible to increase their
capacity. Attempts resulted in severe damage leading to a complete suspension
of operations on several occasions. ”

However, as I showed in Part One, the expert witness Dawidowski claimed
during the 14th hearing of the Hoss trial that the four Birkenau crematoria had
a total cremation capacity of 10,000 coipses a day. Investigative Judge Jan
Sehn even increased that figure to 12,000 (Sehn, p. 125), which was reduced
to 8,000 by the Auschwitz Museum more than half a century later (Piper
2000a, p. 164).

According to Hoss, the maximum number of corpses cremated per day at
Auschwitz was 10,000, but his statements are rather confusing.

198 Ibid., Vol. II, Doc. 249, p. 411.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

263

The question was already touched upon in the interrogation of April 16,
1946:

“Q. We are also told that at Birkenau, the greatest number of prisoners gassed
was about 24,000 in a 24-hour period, or an average of 1,000 per hour, which
were mostly Hungarian Jews, and this was done under Moll. Do you know an¬
ything about that?

A. The highest number that I ever heard and know about when I was there was
10,000 in a 24-hour period because that was the actual maximum capacity of
all the extermination plants that we had. ”

In the handwritten note of April 23, 1946, after listing Birkenau’s extermina¬
tion facilities - two large crematoria with a cremation capacity of 4,000 bodies
a day, two small crematoria with a capacity of 3,000, and “an old farmhouse”
which “could hold some 1,500 people at once” - he continues:

“Cremation was carried out in open pits with wood, and this was more or less
unlimited; according to my calculation, one could cremate up to 8,000 people
in this way within 24 hours. — It was also possible to exterminate and eradi¬
cate up to 10,000 people within 24 hours in the facility mentioned above. To
my knowledge, this number was reached only once in 1944, when on one day
five transporte arrived at the same time due to delayed trains. ”

If the crematoria’s capacity was 7,000 corpses per day, and that of the “farm¬
house” was basically “unlimited,” it is incomprehensible why the total capaci¬
ty was limited to 8,000 coipses, or why that of 10,000 was reached only once.
In this respect, Hoss declared during his trial in Warsaw:

“All crematoria, including Bunkers 2, that is to say, the outdoor facility where
cremations were carried out in pits, could cremate 10,000 people in one day,
within 24 hours. That was the maximum. Moreover, this was reached only
once, when in 1943 [sic; recte: 1944] on a single day, hence within 24 hours,
five transports arrived. Effectively, there never were 10,000 people. ” (My em¬
phasis)

This figure of 10,000 people, Hoss mentioned both for those that could be
cremated per day, and also for those that could be gassed:

“If considering all the gas chambers of the four crematoria as well as the out¬
door facility, which existing back then but was not used, one could gas 10,000
people within 24 hours. ” (My emphasis)

In the preceding citation, it must be 1944, as Hoss explicitly stated in his essay
“The ‘Final Solution...,’” where the maximum cremation capacity is given as
9,000, however:

“The highest number of gassings and cremations reached within 24 hours was
a little more than 9,000, using all installations except for III, in the summer of
1944 during the Hungary operation when, owing to train delays, five trains

264

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

arrived within 24 hours instead of three, which were moreover more crowded
than usual. ”

As stated in the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946,

“During the Hungary operation as utmost 5 trains, that is, 10,000 people. ”

Since, in the case of Hungarian Jews (see Section 42), 30% of the deportees
are said to have been registered and the rest gassed, the maximum number of
those gassed and thus cremated could not be 10,000 or 9,000, but at most
(10,000 x 0.7=) 7,000.

Contrary to the above statements, Hoss asserted on April 30, 1946:

“Q. What was the maximum number of Hungarian Jews ever gassed in one
day?

It could be eight, eight and one half or perhaps nine thousand. I don't know
exactly how many people could be handled from the five transports . ” (My em¬
phasis)

The record of 24,000 corpses created on a single day claimed by the expert
witness Dawidowski during the Hoss trial in Warsaw (see Part I, Chapter III)
was an absurd stereotype of many witnesses that was also taken up by Jan
Sehn. 199

33. The Effective Cremation Capacity

The data provided by Hoss referred to a purely theoretical cremation capacity;
the number of coipses that could actually be cremated was considerably lower
for a number of reasons he explained in detail. Already on 30 April 1946 he
affirmed:

“The ovens were capute [kaputt] in 1944. They had to be rewalled — that is
why people were burned in open graves. ”

During his trial he declared that the crematorium furnaces

“were always in operation day and night when these operations were carried
out. During these operations, which lasted 4, 6 and 8 weeks, these crematoria
operated without interruption. However, some individual crematoria, which
had to be repaired, were eliminated. As a result, it was necessary to resort to a
simpler way of eliminating the corpses, that is, they burned the corpses out¬
doors instead. ”

In this regard Hoss pointed out:

199 Sehn, p. 126. In this version, such a peak performance was reached in August 1944, at the height
of the supposed extermination of the Hungarian Jews (whose deportation ended in early July) and
of the "French.” According to the fairy tale of the time, exemplified in 1945 by Filip Friedman,
670,000 resistance fighters were deported to Auschwitz from France in the summer of 1944
(Friedman, F., p. 74).

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

265

“After 8-10 weeks of cremations, the crematoria had become unserviceable for
further use, so it was impossible to carry out continuous operations in each
individual crematorium. ”

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss divulged more information on
that:

“III failed completely after a short time and was not used anymore at all. IV
had to be shut down repeatedly, since after a brief cremation period offour to
six weeks, the furnaces or the chimneys burnt out. The gassing victims were
usually burned in pits behind Crematorium IV. ”

To Goldensohn he stated:

“Burning two thousand people took about twenty-four hours in the five stoves.
Usually we could manage to cremate only about seventeen hundred to eight¬

een hundred . ” (My emphasis)

Breakdowns of the crematoria (the furnaces, flues and chimneys) were much
more frequent than Hoss stated, and resulted in long suspensions of any cre¬
mation activity. In 1943, the four Birkenau crematoria remained inactive for at
least 551 days of the 1,040 days they could have been operating together.
Crematorium IV was irreparably damaged after merely 50 days of activity. In
1944, the days of inactivity were no more than 236 out of 912 (Mattogno
2015d, pp. 290-297).

None of Birkenau cremation furnaces was “rewalled,” though their refrac¬
tory masonry was expected to last only 2,000 cremations each, corresponding
to 92,000 cremations for all 46 Birkenau muffles. This means in practice that
the refractory masonry of all furnaces would have had to be replaced after
every 92,000 cremations (ibid., pp. 297-299).

The Auschwitz cremation furnaces were coke-fired, and could therefore
not be “in operation day and night,” or operate “without interruption.” Com¬
bustion of coke causes the formation of slag that melts and sticks to the grates
of the gasifiers, increasingly clogging the gaps needed for the combustion-air
intake. The “Operating instructions for the Topf coke-fired triple-muffle cre¬
mation furnace” of March 1943 prescribes explicitly: 200

“Each night the generator grate must be freed of coke slag and the ash must
be removed. ”

Henryk Tauber confirmed this necessity (Mattogno 2015d, p. 374):

“In Crematoria Nos. 2 and 3, cremation of the corpses went on all day long,
except for a break which allowed the removal of the slag, but at least for 21
hours. ”

It is therefore decisively absurd to claim that the cremation furnaces remained
in operation for four to eight weeks “without interruption.”

200 See Mattogno/Deana, Vol. I, pp. 276f.; Vol. II, Doc. 227, p. 382.

266

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

By stating that, in fact, Crematorium II/III could manage to cremate 1,700-
1,800 corpses per day, but not the theoretical 2,000, Hoss probably did not
think of this need (he never mentioned it), although his data corresponds to a
daily activity of 21 hours, with an interruption of three hours:
2,000-24 x 21 = 1,750.

In this context it should be noted that his pretense to demonstrate to Goring
that it had been possible to gas 2,500,000 Jews within three and a half years
makes no sense. It results from its statements that the “operations” consisted
of 2-3 trains per day of 2,000 deported each, and lasted 4-6 weeks (see below,
Section 39).

He insisted on the discontinuity of the transports. Already on April 2, 1946,
he said:

“Yes, but these operations were not carried out daily, but they were carried
out only until one of these operations was finished. For instance, four or five
weeks, and then again for a period of time nothing was undertaken. ”

To Goldensohn, Hoss stated:

“These transports didn’t come daily; sometimes two or three trains arrived on
a single day, every train containing two thousand people, but there were peri¬
ods when no transports arrived for three to six weeks ”

During the interrogation of May 14, 1946, he confirmed that

“those extermination operations did not happen continuously but rather dur¬
ing certain periods of time. ”

If we add to this the repeated breakdowns of the crematoria, it would not have
been that easy for Hoss to prove that it had been possible to cremate two and a
half million corpses in Auschwitz in a much shorter period of time than the
three and a half years wrongly considered by him.

For this reason, every calculation of an annual cremation capacity of the
Birkenau furnaces based on daily numbers is completely senseless. The pro¬
genitor of this fallacious reasoning was Jan Sehn, who wrote already in 1946
that the four Birkenau crematoria had a capacity of 12,000 corpses per day,
“which, on an annual basis, gives the figure of 4,380,000 corpses”! (Sehn, p.
125)

34. The Gas Chambers inside the Crematoria at Birkenau

a) General Problems

On May 20, 1946, Hoss asserted in an affidavit:

“The older extermination camps Belsen [sic], Treblinka and Wolzek had used
monoxide gas. ”

At that time, the British and American interrogators did not know anything
about Sobibor and Chelmno, only little about Treblinka, and very little about

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

267

Belzec that someone confused with Belsen. This was echoed in the statements
by the former Auschwitz commandant, especially in what he told Goldensohn
(placing Trehli nk a in Russia!):

“How many concentration camps in Germany or outside of it had gas cham¬
bers? ‘Mauthausen, Dachau, Auschwitz, and in the east, Treblinka, in Russia
[sic], they used gas wagons. ’ What about Majdanek? ‘They had temporary gas
chambers but that camp came under the Security Police — the Einsatzkomman-
do and Security Police. In Lublin there was a concentration camp which came
under our inspection and supervision but it was not an extermination camp.
Majdanek was near the city> of Lublin and was an extermination camp under
the direction of Lieutenant General Globocnik, who was the SS and political
leader of Lublin.'. ”

It is unclear which camps used “gas vans” in Hoss’s mind. The Americans be¬
lieved - or wished to believe - that the “gas chamber” of Dachau (which, ac¬
cording to the orthodox narrative, was never put into operation 201 ) operated on
a regular basis, so Hoss included that camp in this list. They did not kn ow
anything about the alleged “gas chambers” of Sachsenhausen and Stutthof,
camps that were conquered by the Soviets, so Hoss did not mention them ei¬
ther. It should be remembered that Hoss knew all the concentration camps per¬
fectly well due to his assignment to the WVHA, and that he had inspected
them frequently.

In his affidavit of April 4, 1946, Hoss stated that, to kill arriving Jews, the
commander of the Trehli nk a Camp,

“used monoxide gas and / did not think that his methods were very efficient.
So when I set up the extermination building at Auschwitz, / used Cyclon B,
which was a crystallized Prussic acid which we dropped into the death cham¬
ber from a small opening. ” (My emphasis)

What was “the extermination building” (in the sworn statement of May 20,
1946 in German: “ Vernichtungsgebaeude ”)? It had only one gas chamber and
one introduction opening, Hoss claimed, which matches neither the morgue of
Crematorium I nor “Bunker 1.”

b) Number and Capacity of the Gas Chambers

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss observed (Broszat 1981, p. 170;
Bezwinska/Czech, p. 133):

“Experience has shown that the hydrogen cyanide preparation Cyclon B
caused death with absolute speed and certainty. ”

If that turned out to be so, one may wonder why Himmler did not introduce
the Zyklon-B method also for the so-called eastern extermination camps. Glo-

201 In 1990, when I visited the former Dachau Camp, there was a sign on display inside the “gas
chamber” saying in German, English, French, Italian and Russian: “Gas chamber disguised as a
‘shower room’ - never used as a gas chamber.” Photo of this sign in Mattogno 2016h, p. 257.

268

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

bocnik’s mythical visit to Auschwitz in the summer of 1943 (see Section 9)
was probably an attempt by Hoss to answer this question.

In his handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, Hoss provided the follow¬
ing description of the gas chambers inside the Birkenau crematoria:

"The transports arrive at a ramp near the 4 cremat. Unloading selection tak¬
ing away of luggage as above[.]

Those to be gassed walk into a large underground room provided with bench¬
es a. provisions to keep the clothes. F [sic]

After that they walk into the actual gassing room which holds 2000 persons . It
is equipped with water pipes a. showers, creating the impression of a washing
facility. F [sic] ” (My emphasis)

This must refer to Crematoria II and III, the only ones with basement rooms;
these installations therefore had only one “gassing room” each.

Gilbert noted the following about what Hoss had told him on April 9,
1946:

"He explained that there were actually 6 extermination chambers . The 2 bis
ones could accommodate as many as 2,000 in each and the 4 smaller ones up
to 1,500 , making a total capacity of 10,000 a day . I tried to figure out how this
was done, but he corrected me. ‘No, you don’t figure it right. The killing itself
took the least time. You could dispose of 2,000 heads in half hour, but it was
the burning that took all the time. The killing was easy; you didn’t even need
guards to drive them into the chambers; they just went in expecting to take
showers and, instead of water, we turned on poison gas. The whole thing went
very quickly. (My emphasis)

On that same day, Hoss also spoke to Goldensohn, who reported:

"There were four gas chambers underground; two large ones each accommo¬
dating two thousand people and two smaller ones each accommodating sixteen
hundred people. The gas chambers were built like a shower installation, with
shower outlets, water pipes, a few plumbing fixtures, and a modern electrical
ventilation system so that after the gassing, the room could be aired [out] by
means of the electrical ventilation apparatus. The corpses were brought by el¬
evators to the crematory above ” (My emphasis)

This referred to what Hoss called the “great crematoriums", hence Crematoria
II and III, which Hoss claimed had been operable since 1942.

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss change the gas chambers’ ca¬
pacity once more:

“Both Crematoria I and II had undressing and gassing rooms located under¬
ground that could be ventilated. The corpses were taken upstairs to the fur¬
naces by means of an elevator. The sassins rooms could hold about 3,000
people each ; these numbers were never reached, though, since the individual
transports were never as large as that. ” (My emphasis)

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

269

The contradictions are obvious. In each of the Crematoria II and III, only one
room with a capacity of 2,000 people first doubled to two rooms with together
up to 3,600 people, then the total capacity per room increased to 3,000, while
being unclear about how many gassing rooms there were in each building.

It should also be noted that the claimed gassing procedures were peculiar:
In the Treblinka gas chambers, some 24 people were squeezed onto a square
meter, in the Birkenau bunkers 8 to 9 people, and in the gassing rooms of
Crematoria II and III up to 14 (3,000 people/210 m 2 ).

If there were altogether six gas chambers in the crematoria, two of which
were located in the basements of Crematoria II and III, the other four were lo¬
cated in Crematoria IV and V, each of which would have had two gas cham¬
bers that could accommodate 1,500 people each, hence 3,000 in all. In prac¬
tice, these crematoria are therefore said to have had a killing capacity of
(3,000 -s- 2,000 =) 150% compared to Crematoria II and III, although the cre¬
mation capacity of their furnaces as claimed by Hoss was only 1,500 corpses
per day, less than what he claimed for Crematoria II and III. In addition,
Crematoria IV and V would have been able to gas a full batch of people only
every other day, because each full batch yielded 3,000 corpses. These facili¬
ties were therefore designed by a moron.

Little of this is in accordance with the orthodox narrative. If we follow F.
Piper from the Auschwitz Museum, Crematoria IV and V in fact are said to
have had three gas chambers each, the smallest one of which was divided into
two, resulting actually in four gas chambers with a total surface area of 236.78
m 2 (Piper 2000a, pp. 162, 168), while the gas chamber of Crematoria II and III
had a surface area of 210 m 2 {ibid., 165). According to Piper, the “official”
cremation capacity of Crematorium of II and III was 1,440 corpses per day
each while that of Crematoria IV and V was 768 per day each. Piper posits
furthermore that the gas chamber of Crematoria II and III could contain 2,000
persons {ibid., p. 169). Applying the same (unrealistic) packing density to the
four gas chambers of Crematoria IV and V, this results in (2,000 210 m 2 x

236.78 m 2 =) 2,255 persons per full gassing batch for these buildings. All this
leads us to conclude in this case as well that the designers of the Birkenau
crematoria did not know what they were doing. Unless, of course, they did not
plan these facilities with the purpose of mass homicide.

The gas chambers’ alleged disguise as shower rooms was a stereotype of
that era’s fairy tales, including the tale that lethal gas came out of the shower
heads, incredibly repeated even by Hoss. For example, on September 14,
1945, the former Auschwitz inmate Isaak Egon Ochshorn spoke of a “bath”
“into which gas was fed instead of water” (NO-1934).

During the Hoss Trial in Warsaw, Hoss repeated this fairy tale with refer¬
ence to the “gas chamber” of the Konigstein euthanasia institute, which later

270

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

became Sonnenstein: 202 detainees deported from Auschwitz were killed in a
bath by means of carbon monoxide introduced “through the showers’ open¬
ings.”

As for Crematorium III, there is another explanation. In the framework of
the important “Special measures to improve the hygienic facilities” in Ausch¬
witz ordered by Kammler in early May 1943 (which Hoss never mentioned), a
project was partially implemented to create a shower facility in the basement
( Kellergeschoss ) of Crematorium III. This project was then extended to en¬
compass Crematorium II as well. 203 According to the orthodox narrative, the
gas chambers of Crematoria II and III were equipped with fake shower heads
without water pipes. However, in the handwritten note of April 23, 1946, Hoss
was very specific about this:

“This was equipped like a bath, i.e., everywhere were shower heads , pipes and
water drains, etc. ’’ (My emphasis)

Was there a real memory surfacing in his mind?

A distorted echo of the aforementioned projects also came to light in his
statement that “the gas and undressing rooms were to be used as bathing fa¬
cilities after the extermination operations had been stopped.” (Broszat, p. 165;
Bezwinska/Czech, p. 125).

c) Structure of the Gas Chamber

The gas chambers of Crematoria IV and V are never described by Hoss, who
apparently knew nothing of them. Those of Crematoria II and III, whose num¬
bers were changing, were supposedly disguised as bathing and shower rooms;
see my comments in the previous subsection.

In his handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, Hoss stated that “At the
last moment, the iron doors are closed” (my italics), but it is known these
doors were made of wood (Piper 2000a, p. 165).

Since the gas chambers were located semi-underground, openings were al¬
legedly chiseled through the roof to introduce Zyklon B from above, but even
in this respect Hoss did not have a clear conception.

On April 2, 1946, he declared:

“It was all below ground. In the ceiling of these gas chambers, there were
three or four openings that were fenced around with grating that reached to
the floor of the gas chamber, and through these openings the gas was poured
into the gas chambers ” (My emphasis)

This version, which was later declared as the official truth, was only one
among many at that time. Two so-called former members of the crematori¬
um’s “Sonderkommando” supported a different version. For Charles Sigis-

202 Czech 1989, pp. 105f.; on the basis of this simple statement by Hoss, which is not supported by
anything, Czech created a story that she placed, with her fertile imagination, on July 28, 1941.

203 Mattogno 2004, pp. 276-278 (Mattogno/Poggi 2017b, pp. 22-33) and related documents.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

271

mund Bendel, there were two trellised columns at the center of the gas cham¬
bers; Miklos Nyiszli spoke of “square-shaped metal tubes, with all the sides
perforated like a grid” (see Mattogno 2018b/c).

In the handwritten note of April 23, 1946, he merely stated tersely that
Zyklon B was poured in “from the top through special openings.”

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss describes these devices in
more detail, although not very lucidly:

Although there are said to have been “ throw-in hatches ,” in the plural, Hoss
then speaks of a single device, which he calls “ air shaft” (“ Luftschacht” ) and
“throw-in shaft” (“ Einwurfschacht ”) as if the two terms were synonymous.

The new crematorium (the future Crematorium II), designed by the SS Un-
terscharfiihrer Karl Ulmer on January 19, 1942, had an “air-intake shaft”
(“Beliftungsschacht ”) and an “air-exhaust shaft” (“ Entluftungsschachf ’),
which were, however, linked to the crematorium’s ventilation system and
were not located inside Morgue #1 (the alleged gas chamber). The term “air
shaft” (“ Luftschacht' ’) makes sense only in this context, which means it makes
no sense at all in the context of the claimed homicidal gassing. In this perspec¬
tive, the term “throw-in shaft” (“ Einwurfschacht ”) also appears to be illogical:
if “throw-in” refers to the act of introducing the contents of a Zyklon B can,
how can “shaft” (“ Schacht ”) refer to a hollow tube or column?

During the Hoss Trial, where he could have clarified the matter (but no one
asked him to), Hoss was rather laconic about this:

“They were brought to the gas chamber, and the gas was thrown through
tubes into these rooms, where it spread immediately and caused death. ”

35. Zyklon B

In his tale about the “discovery” of Zyklon B as a means of extermination,
Hoss outlined the real situation that existed at the time. During the interroga¬
tion on May 14, 1946, he stated the following:

“At the point in time when the gassings started, it was in stock in large quanti¬
ties, that is to say, in stock for gassing vermin, for combatting vermin and so
on, in the buildings and barracks originating from the former Polish artillery
barracks. Two employees from the company Tesch & Stabenow, Hamburg,
were present who carried out these fumigations in the rooms. Comprehensive

272

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

safety measures were taken, and due to these safety measures, which were im¬
plemented each time, everything was cordoned off, and no one was allowed to
show up in the vicinity’, and for two days no one was allowed to enter the
buildings. Everything was moreover aired out in order that no accidents oc¬
curred. ”

Hoss outlined this scenario also in the sworn statement of May 20:

"When the gassing of human beings commenced, considerable quantities of
the gas — Zyclon B were still available in the Auschwitz Camp. The gas had
been used for the destruction of vermin in the buildings and barracks which
were located there originating from the Polish artillery camp. The gas came
from the Tesch & Stabenow Company, International Association for Pest Con¬
trol, Ltd., Hamburg. Two technical representatives of this company were in the
camp in order to carry out disinfections of the buildings, during which they
implemented careful safety measures in order to prevent accidents. ”

The respective employees of Tesch & Stabenow - at the time Hans Willy Max
Rieck and August Marcinkowski 204 - were never implicated in homicidal gas¬
sings, and only after Fritzsche’s alleged “discovery” were some SS men sent
from Auschwitz to the company’s headquarters at Hamburg to take a special
course in order to become the “disinfectors” employed for pouring Zyklon B
into the gas chambers, as Hoss clarified during his trial in Warsaw:

“ We had a sufficient quantity of this gas, which was supplied by a Hamburg
firm, who had to use the gas to exterminate vermin in the camp. Initially, the
disinfection [disinfestation] of premises was carried out by employees of this
Hamburg firm, then paramedics were used, the so-called disinfectors. They
were sent to this Hamburg firm to learn how to use this gas. ”

Under these circumstances, it is extremely difficult to believe that Fritzsch had
risked a homicidal mass gassing with Zyklon B on his own initiative, without
any specialized staff, without knowing the instructions on how to use Zyklon
B, without any knowledge about any first-aid measures in the case of an acci¬
dental poisoning by hydrogen cyanide, which could also have caused the
death of the SS men involved.

Months later, on January 29, 1947, Hoss dramatically minimized the real
dangers he had described so well earlier by asserting:

“This gas proved to be easy to handle and it was not necessary to build spe¬
cial complicated equipment for its use. Only cyklon B was used in Oswiecim
for the poisoning of people ” (My emphasis)

All kinds of things can be claimed about Zyklon B, except that it was “easy to
handle.” The “Guidelines for the Use of Prussic Acid (Zyklon) for Destruction
of Vermin” as published by the Health Authority of the Protectorate of Bohe-

204 Statements of October 22 and 24, 1945. TNA, WO/309-1603. See my study Mattogno 2015a, p.
71.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

273

mia and Moravia in Prague pointed out the dangers of hydrogen cyanide, just
as did and do all other, similar publications: 205

“Prussic acid acts almost without notice, therefore it should be considered
highly poisonous and highly dangerous. ”

On April 1st, Hoss claimed paradoxically that Zyklon B had been chosen ex¬
actly because it was so dangerous:

“Originally, this Cyclone B was used in order to gas rooms and to exterminate
insects. Since it was very poisonous and had to be treated with great care; we
assumed that it was the proper thing to use against humans. ”

On that day, Hoss also claimed that Zyklon B “was a crystal-like substance”
(my emphasis). In the handwritten note of April 23, 1946, he described
Zyklon B as “a crystal-like hydrogen cyanide which evaporated instantly,
meaning that it became effective instantly on contact with oxygen ” (my em¬
phasis) This was repeated in the sworn statement of May 20, 1946:

“After / had erected the extermination building at Auschwitz, I used Zyclon B,
a crystallized hydrogen cyanide [...]”

On April 5, Hoss stated that the Zyklon B “was a crystallized Prussic acid.”
This was another very popular tale at the time (see Mattogno 2018b/c).

In the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, we read:

“The Cyclon a granular blue mass — hydrogen cyanide — acts instantly —
numbing. ”

In the “transcript” of this document we read that Zyklon was “was a granular
mass of hydrogen cyanide.”

Such a definition does not mean anything because the “granular blue mass”
consisted of the carrier material. The above-mentioned “Guidelines” state in
this regard (NI-9912):

“The carrier material used is either wood-fiber disks, a granular red-brown
mass (Diagriess) or small blue cubes (Erco). ”

“Erco” consisted of gypsum pellets, while “DiagrieB” was diatomaceous earth.
The latter could be more appropriately described as “powder,” the term used
by Hoss during his trial in Warsaw (“the inlet point of the gas powder”), but it
was a “granular red-brown mass.”

However, the photograph of the carrier material from a Zyklon can found
at Auschwitz at war’s end, and published by F. Piper in 2000, undoubtedly
shows “Erco” cubes (Piper 2000a, photo between pp. 112 & 113)

As to hydrogen cyanide becoming “effective instantly on contact with ox¬
ygen,” it is a mystery why he would suggest such nonsense, since it is known
that the effectiveness of Zyklon B depended merely on how fast it evaporated,

205 NI-9912. See the transcript of the German original in Rudolf 2016a, pp. 132-141; the English
translation in Rudolf 2016b, pp. 117-124.

274

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

which in turn was determined by the temperature and humidity of the sur¬
rounding atmosphere, but not on whether or not it contained any oxygen. I
will return below to this fundamental point.

In his April 1 interrogation, Hoss also claimed that “the gas was not com¬
posed the same way and was not as effective every time.” In Warsaw, he con¬
firmed that “the gas components were not always the same,” Which gave the
gas a varying “strength,” i.e. effectiveness. Misunderstanding some docu¬
ments, only Raul Hilberg maintained such nonsense (see Mattogno 2018d, pp.
132fi).

36. The Quantity of Zyklon B Used for Gassings

Hoss pointed out exactly how much Zyklon B was needed for gassing of one
transport. On May 14, 1946, he declared in this regard:

“It was handled in such a way that for each transport four or five cans were
used, depending on the weather. ”

To the subsequent question, “Hence, you could gas 2,000 people with 4
cans?” he replied:

“No, on average some 25% inmates fit for labor were extracted, so that some
1,500-1,600 people were gassed. Furthermore, one needed— it was different in
the crematoria, 7 in the large crematoria, in other rooms 5 cans. But it also
depended on the weather. If it was very cold and wet, 2-3 more cans had to be
used. ”

Later he specified that a can contained 1 kg of hydrogen cyanide. On May 20,
he provided further information:

“Of Zyclon B, between 5 and 7 cans with one kg each were needed for the gas¬
sing of 1,500 people; the number of cans varied depending on the size of the
chamber and the weather, that is to say, during cold and humid weather, 2 or
3 additional cans were needed. ”

In the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, however, the number of cans
used was 4 to 5:

“At the last moment, the iron doors are closed and 4-5 Cyclon cans are
thrown in through hatches. ”

The total amount of Zyklon B used for the claimed gassings was actually sug¬
gested to Hoss by his American interrogators, by Mr. Alfred Booth, to be pre¬
cise, during the interrogation of May 14:

“Q 44) If you take a total of 2,000,000 gassed [inmates], and consider that 7
or 6 cans were used for 1,500 [victims], then you certainly can establish that.
That is 2,000 x 6 cans or 10,000 cans or 10,000 kg for a period of three years.
A. Yes. ”

During the interrogation on May 16, Hoss asked Booth:

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

275

“Regarding the 3 million gassed people, should that be corrected or remain as
it is? ”

Booth responded:

“I thought about that and have checked your earlier affidavit, according to
which 2 1/2 million were gassed and not 3 million. We can change that here as
well and can then also change the number of cans. That is 1/6 less, hence
10,000 cans. ”

This was confirmed by the former Auschwitz commandant in the affidavit of
May 20, 1946:

“I cannot remember the exact quantity of Zyclon B that we received from
Tesch & Stabenow, but / reckon that at least 10,000 cans, that is, 10,000 kg
had been delivered by them within three years. This number results from the
calculation, based on a number of 2 1/2 million gassed people and the average
use of 6 cans for 1,500 people. ”

The number of gassed victims of the first quote, 2,000,000, is a mistake; the
“official” figure was in fact 2,500,000, and only 10,000 cans would be equiva¬
lent to this: 2,500,000 1,500 x 6 = 10,000.

Since the number of gassed victims is a gross exaggeration even according
to the current orthodox narrative, any calculation based on it evidently has no
value, and thus also the calculated quantities.

Moreover, in the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, Hoss stated
that each of the two “farmhouses” could contain between 200 and 300 people,
whose gassing he claims required one to two cans of Zyklon B. The average
of this is 1.5 cans for 250 people, hence (1,500 ^ 250 x 1.5 =) 9 kg for 1,500
people, not 7 kg.

In the statements made in Poland, the former Auschwitz commandant dra¬
matically changed the capacity of the “bunkers,” claiming that Bunker 1 could
contain 800 people, and Bunker 2 1,200. One could posit that in his first
statement Hoss was wrong about the capacity of the “bunkers,” but how could
we go wrong about the number of Zyklon-B cans used? His second capacity
amounts to two cans of Zyklon B for 800 people at best, hence,
(1,500 -i- 800 x 2 =) less than four cans for 1,500 people. These accounts don’t
fit together in any way.

When he found himself in the hands of the Poles, Hoss dropped these cal¬
culations and returned to Allied legal sources. In his profile of Dr. Grawitz
(see Section 50), he referred to a quantity of 19,000 kg of Zyklon B “accord¬
ing to a British public prosecutor in Munich.”

Such an order of magnitude had been indicated by Alfred Zaun, Tesch &
Stabenow’s accountant, for the years 1942 and 1943; to be accurate, he men¬
tioned 19,653.5 kg. 206

206 NI-l 1396. Affidavit by A. Zaun, Oct. 26, 1945.

276

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Luckily, Hoss retained some sense for the ridiculous, so he did not dare
adopt Dawidowski’s claim that 125,800 kg of Zyklon B had been delivered to
Auschwitz!

The average quantity of 7 kg of Zyklon B for 1,500 people in the largest
Crematoria (II and III) would have resulted in a concentration of 14 g hydro¬
gen cyanide per m 3 , which is equivalent to 11,662 ppm, after all the hydrogen
cyanide had evaporated, and ignoring any losses through leakage, absorption,
inhalation etc. (Mattogno/Poggi 2017a; 2017b, pp. 99, 104).

For curiosity’s sake, if we assume the number of gassing victims currently
in circulation (865,000; Piper 1993, p. 202), and an average of 6 kg of Zyklon
B for 1,500 people, the total consumption would have amounted to
(865,000 a- 1500 x 6 =) 3,460 kg, which is less than 18% of the supply during
1942-1943. Adding the years 1940-1941 and 1944 (for 1941, a minimum
quantity of 3,000 kg is certain, and 1,185 kg for 1944; Mattogno 2015a, pp.
69, 74), this decreases to 14.5%.

Considering additional Zyklon-B deliveries for which documents have not
survived, the effective percentage of the claimed gassings would have been
even lower and would approach Pressac’s unsubstantiated claim that no more
than 2-3% of the total supply of Zyklon B were misused for it (Pressac 1993,
p. 47).

This enables us to prove another blatant lie told by Hoss which he told Al¬
fred Booth with great insistence during the interrogation on May 14, 1946,
which the latter must have recognized. The interrogator exerted himself to
have the former Auschwitz co mm andant implicate the company Tesch &
Stabenow in the extermination. Even though Hoss was reluctant at first, he
eventually caved in:

“Q 39) Do you want to say with this that the Tesch & Stabenow Company
could not have known what else the gas was being used for? Or do you think
that it must be assumed that the company knew that their gas was also being
used on humans?

A. My conclusion I can draw from this is that the company could have known
it only because Auschwitz constantly requested it, while it was delivered to the
other units of the SS troops only once or at intervals of half a year . [... ]

A. / already stated earlier that they came across this due to the continual de¬
liveries . ” (My emphases)

In his affidavit of May 20, 1946, he was suddenly certain about it:

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

277

" I consider it certain that this company knew about the purpose of the Zyclon

B delivered by them, since they had to conclude this from the fact that the gas
was ordered routinely and in larse quantities for Auschwitz, while the other
departments of the SS troops etc. either ordered it only once or in intervals of
6 months. ” (My emphases)

While it is true that Zyklon B was “constantly,” “routinely and in large quanti¬
ties” ordered by the Auschwitz Camp, it would also be true, as Pressac
claimed, that only some 2-3% of the Zyklon B delivered was misused for
homicidal purposes. But if the vast majority was indeed used for the originally
intended purposes, what could Tesch possibly have deduced from these deliv¬
eries? And what could be deduced from the quantities of Zyklon B supplied to
the various camps without taking into account their occupancy?

For example, at the Lublin-Majdanek Camp 6,961 kg of Zyklon B were de¬
livered during the years 1942-1944 (Graf/Mattogno 2016a, pp. 191-206), but
the maximum number of that camp’s male inmates was just over 11,000 in¬
mates, while the maximum number of females was just under 3,000 (Kranz/
Kuwalek/Siwek-Ciupak). In contrast to that, the maximum number of Ausch¬
witz inmates was over 135,000 (Czech 1989, p. 860), hence almost ten times
more, so in proportion, Auschwitz could have received a much larger amount
of Zyklon B than the documented 23,838 kg without raising any suspicions.

37. The Lethal Dose of Zyklon B

Already in his handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, Hoss concisely stat¬
ed: “Duration of exposure depending on weather 3-10 minutes.” On April 1
of that year, he elaborated more on this subject:

“Q. Was it long before the human beings were killed by this gas?

A. It depended on weather, humidity, time of day, and the number of people

present in the chamber . Also, the gas was not composed the same way and was
not as effective every time.

Q. [Mr. Jaari] In general, how long a time did it take?

A. I saw it happen often enough. Generally it took from three to fifteen
minutes. The effect varied. Where ever the gas was thrown into the chamber,
the people standing right next to it were immediately anaesthetized . It gradual¬
ly spread out to the far corners of the room and generally after five minutes
one could no longer discern the human forms in the chamber. Everybody was
dead after fifteen minutes, and the chambers were opened after a half an hour
and not once was anybody alive at that time ” (My emphasis)

This became his definitive version, which he also repeated at Nuremberg:

"Dr. Kauffmann: And then, you told me the other day, that death by gassing
set in within a period of 3 to 15 minutes . Is that correct?

Hoess: Yes.

278

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Dr. Kauffmann: You also told me that even before death finally set in, the vic¬
tims fell into a state of unconsciousness?

He told a similar story to Goldensohn:

“How long did it take for Zyklon B to work? ‘After all of the observations
done all of those years, I feel that it depended upon the weather, the wind, the
temperature; and as matter of fact, the effectiveness of the gas itself was not
always the same. Usually it took three to fifteen minutes to extinguish all these
people, that is, for no sign of live anymore ” (My emphasis)

During his trial in Warsaw, Hoss confirmed:

“People standing close to the hole fell as if they had been hit by a lightning
strike; the others took between 3 to 5 and up to at most 10 minutes to the point
of loss of consciousness. One waited until they stopped moving. ”

Germar Rudolf has exhaustively investigated this issue. I summarize, and
simplify the main points of his research results. From an analysis of 113 exe¬
cutions carried out at San Quentin Penitentiary in California using hydrogen
cyanide, unconsciousness set in on average after five minutes, and death oc¬
curred after just over 9 minutes, with a gas concentration of 3,000-3,600 parts
per million, which is equivalent to 3,600-4,000 mg per m 3 , or 3.6 to 4 g per
m 3 .

While the development of the hydrogen-cyanide gas in the San Quentin gas
chamber was practically immediate, with the end concentration being reached
within seconds, Zyklon B required a much longer time to release its active
agent. In 1942, Richard Irmscher, an employee of the Degesch Company,
which had a monopoly on producing Zyklon B, carried out evaporation exper¬
iments with Zyklon B. The product named “Erco” released 10% of its hydro¬
gen cyanide within the first five minutes at a temperature of 15°C and low rel¬
ative humidity, and 96.4% after two hours. At a temperature of 30°C, this cor¬
responds to some 15% within the first five minutes.

Consequently, in order to kill all the victims of the gas chamber within
three to five minutes, it would take almost 64 kg (cans) of Zyklon B. 207

It should be noted that absurdly short execution times were commonplace
in the fairy tales on Auschwitz right from the start; it was already claimed by

207 Rudolf 2017, Chapter 7, “Zyklon B for Killing of Human Beings,” pp. 225-296, in particular pp.
228-238.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

279

witness Mordechai Lichtenstein, who made a long statement in May 1945, in
which he stated, among other things: 208

“If a sufficient quantity of the substance was used, asphyxiation was complete
in about 3 to 5 minutes. ”

In 1945, this claim was even officialized by historian Filip Friedman (p. 69).

Rudolf also noted that the lethal concentrations given for hydrogen cyanide
in expert literature are too low, because they resulted from extrapolations of
data valid only for small mammals. These values were applied to humans for
safety reasons, since no experiments of lethal gassing have ever been per¬
formed on human beings. From experiments it is known, however, that hu¬
mans have a higher resistance to gaseous hydrogen cyanide than small mam¬
mals. 209 This is an observation of capital importance. In another study, I elabo¬
rated on this paradox in detail: although the SS is said to have gassed hun¬
dreds of thousands of people at Auschwitz using hydrogen cyanide, and even
though the Germans carried out experiments of every type during the war, in¬
cluding those with gases (yperite and phosgene, in order to determine the ef¬
fectiveness of countermeasures), no experiment was carried out to verify the
applicability and reliability, for gaseous hydrogen cyanide, of Haber’s well-
known formula dating back to World War I (Mattogno 2015a, Chapter V.I.).
This astounding lack of any testing and experimentation is even more glaring
for Hoss’s statements.

Rudolf (2017, pp. 23If.) has also demonstrated that

“symptomatic of hydrogen-cyanide poisoning in fatal cases is the bright-red
coloration of the blood and thus also of bruised spots and at times even of the
entire skin. ”

Hoss, who testified as if he had been virtually always present at the killing op¬
erations, including the removal of the corpses, did not know anything about
this phenomenon and merely stated:

“There was no noticeable change in the bodies and rw sign of convulsions or
discoloration . Only after the bodies had been left lying for some time, that is to
say after several hours, did the usual death stains appear in the places where
they had lain. ” (My emphasis)

These “death stains” are the livor mortis or cadaveric lividity, caused by the
fact that, after the heart has ceased its activity, blood drains downward follow¬
ing gravity, forming spots indicating the position of the corpse. This means
that in this case Hoss’s observation is real, but does not refer to victims of
gassings, but to coipses of inmates who died in the camp of all kinds of “natu¬
ral” causes and which were temporarily deposited in mortuary chambers.

208 Jewish Central Information Office, Eighteen Months in the Oswiecim Extermination Camp, May
1945, p. 12; RvO, c[21]09. This report also reached London: TNA, OSP 325.

209 Rudolf 2017, pp. 23If.

280

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

In Sections 16f., I examined how Zyklon B is said to have been “discov¬
ered” as a substance to be used for the claimed mass extermination. The “first
gassing” was allegedly carried out in the basement cells of Block 11. Here it is
necessary to re-examine from another point of view what Hoss stated in his
essay “The ‘Final Solution...

“On the occasion of a business trip, my deputy, Hauptsturmfuhrer Fritzsch,
had used gas on his own initiative to eradicate these Russian prisoners of war.
Fie did it by cramming the individual cells located in the basement full of Rus¬
sians and, while using gas masks, throwing Cyclon B gas into the cells, caus¬
ing instant death . ’’ (My emphasis)

In that case, the Zyklon B could have been poured into the cells full of Rus¬
sian PoWs only through the door, but this scenario, as Pressac already noted,
“is frankly unrealistic,” if not to say practically impossible, “without having
this operation degenerate into a desperate revolt of the victims” (cf. Mattogno
2016b, pp. 90-92).

The fundamental problem is: what could be deduced from this alleged ex¬
periment about the gassing of human beings with Zyklon B?

Hoss indicated the amount of Zyklon B needed to cause the death of the
victims and stated that the duration of their agony depended on various fac¬
tors: weather, wind, humidity, time, number of victims, but this “knowledge”
could only have been the result of many experiments, which the former
Auschwitz commandant never mentioned. It is evident that, from this acci¬
dental experiment for the alleged “first gassing” - for which Hoss did not even
mention the quantity of Zyklon B used, nor the number of victims - no rule
could have been deduced, neither the one about 5 to 7 kg for 1,500 people, nor
the one about 2 or 3 extra kilograms of Zyklon B needed during cold and hu¬
mid weather. This would have required a series of experiments evaluating the
effects of these factors.

If we then would take seriously Dawidowski’s explanation during the 14th
Hearing of the Hoss trial that the “[first] test [gassing] did not succeed perfect¬
ly well” because “the [lethal] doses were too little obvious [known],” 210 the
need for further experiments becomes even more apparent. Dawidowski relied
on Michal Kula’s claim that the gassing was carried out by Palitzsch, and that
the “gas chamber” was opened the day after, and that it was discovered that
“people were still alive,” so the gassing was repeated. 211

This version is in overt contrast to Hoss’s claim, according to which on this
occasion Zyklon B caused “instant death”; “Death occurred in the cram-
packed cells immediately after insertion.” In the light of what I have outlined
above, this instant-death scenario is physically impossible and thus absurd.

210 United Nations Archives. Security Microfilm Program, 1988, Reel No. 62. Hoss Trial, 14th Hear¬
ing, p. 1562.

211 Ibid., pp. 480f.; cf. Mattogno 2016b, pp. 47f.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

281

Moreover, the former Auschwitz co mm andant did not explain why he subse¬
quently changed his storyline by replacing instantaneous death with an agony
of 3-15 minutes.

There is one last important aspect that requires an in-depth study. On April
2, 1946, Hoss was questioned about when the gas chambers were opened and
who removed the coipses of the victims:

“Q. And after how long a time were the doors opened?

A. After half an hour, as in the case of the other places.

Q. And who went in to remove the bodies?

A. The detail of prisoners who were working there. / might add that in the in¬
stallations of the plants electrical ventilators were added which removed the
gas fumes.

Q. But was not it quite dangerous work for these inmates to go into these
chambers and work among the bodies and among the gas fumes?

A. No.

Q. Did they carry gas masks?

A. They had some, but they did not need them, as nothing ever happened . ”
(My emphasis)

These statements are utterly untenable: the gas chambers of Crematoria II and
III, with 1,500 victims (but also with much less than that) could not have op¬
erated efficiently as mass-murder devices, because after each gassing, the bod¬
ies of the victims would have obstructed the air-extraction openings of the
room’s ventilation system, which were located near the floor. This would have
rendered the ventilation ineffective, preventing the extraction of the noxious
gasses from that room. Hence, when the doors were opened, the gaseous mix¬
ture would have spilled from the overcrowded gas chamber into the cremato¬
rium’s other basement rooms, poisoning the detainees of the “ Sonderkomman-
do ” assigned to extracting gold teeth and to cutting the victims’ hair, as this
activity is said to have taken place in the “vestibule” (“Torraw/w”), the room
right in front of the door of the presumed gas chamber. The gas would also
have poisoned the SS men assigned to supervising the members of the “ Son-
derkommando . ”

But for Hoss, this unavoidable problem, with the concomitant serious risks
of poisoning even his SS staff, never existed! (Mattogno/Poggi 2017a; 2017b,
pp.95-107)

As for the ventilation system, Hoss’s claim that it was “added” to remove
“gas fumes,” implying that it did not exist earlier, hence is a criminal “sup¬
plement,” is wrong, as Hoss must have known. This ventilation system was
carefully designed by the Topf engineer Karl Schultze, and is contained as
such in Blueprint No. D-59366 of the new crematorium, dated March 10,
1942, to which no orthodox Auschwitz expert of any importance attributes

282

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

any criminal meaning. It is a standard ventilation system for morgues, which
for obvious reasons need to have such a system. 212

38. The Sonderkommando

Prior to being extradited to Poland, Hoss did not yet know that the inmate unit
working in the crematoria was meant to be called “ Sonderkommando .” This
term never appears in his statements in German. In the handwritten note of
April 23-24, 1946, he simply spoke of a “permanent labor unit of inmates.”
The English statements contain the terms “special commandos” and “special
work detail,” but only rarely and then without any particular emphasis; the
most commonly used terms are in fact “detail of prisoners,” “detail,” “working
detail,” “work detail,” “crematorium detail,” “crematory detail,” “excavation
detail” and “furnace details.”

Moll stated that “there was a special work detail made up of prisoners who
were responsible for unloading the transports, and for handling of the wreck¬
age.” This statement is correct because there was a “ Sonderkommando I” and
a “ Sonderkommando II” in Auschwitz for the storage of the personal effects of
deportees (see Mattogno 2016i, p. 112; 2016e, pp. 90-94). This was the only
“Sonderkommando ” known to him.

In 1946, one of the most common stereotypes in vogue about the “ Sonder¬
kommando ” was its short lifespan, 3 or 4 months, after which its members
were allegedly gassed, because they knew too much. One of the biggest prop¬
agators of this legend was Miklos Nyiszli (Mattogno 2018b/c). This story
found its echo in Hoss’s interrogation in the afternoon of April 5, 1946:

“[Hoss]. There was a certain amount of inmates. Those that worked there also

lived there and did not get together at all with the rest of the inmates.

Q. And at short intervals, these commandos who worked in the extermination

camp were gassed themselves, weren’t they?. ”

A. According to the orders of the RSHA, the inmates working the extermina¬

tion mechanism were to be shot quarterly . However, this was not done .

Q. Was it a standing order from RSHA?

A. Yes. I received that order from Eichmann and it was in effect at all times .

Q. When did you receive that order?

A. The first time when Eichmann was in camp he said that it was to be execut¬
ed in all cases.

Q. And when was that?

A. That was in 1941. ’’ (My emphasis)

Hence, Eichmann is said to have conveyed to Hoss Himmler’s order during
his first alleged visit to Auschwitz at a time when he did not yet know which
gas would be used for exterminating the Jews, nor how this would be imple-

212 See Mattogno/Poggi 2017a (2017b, pp. 56-66) for a detailed description of this system.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

283

merited. Therefore, no one knew anything yet about the future use of a “Son-
derkommando ”!

On April 16, 1946, Hoss reiterated:

“/ received that order from Eichmann and he ordered in particular that the
furnace commandoes should be shot every three months, however, / failed to
comply with these orders as / did not think this was right ” (My emphasis)

However, in his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” Hoss asserted in contrast to
this that the Jews of the “ Sonderkommando ” “according to Eichmann’s order,
had to be eliminated themselves after every’ major operation ” (my emphasis).

The impression derived from these statements is that the periodic extermi¬
nation of the “ Sonderkommando ” members (of which Hoss, like Moll, kn ew
nothing) was only one of his many concessions to the accusations made by the
inquisitors who interrogated him. In order to avoid having to answer specific
questions to which he did not know the answers (e.g. how many detainees,
and when they were gassed), the former Auschwitz commandant resorted to
the puerile subterfuge that he had simply disobeyed a formal order issued by
Himmler - the hell knows why, and how he got away with it!

Hoss claimed that he had been virtually omnipresent during the gassings,
and that he had observed everything in detail. Take, for example, his statement
of January 8, 1947, with the anecdote of the “ Sonderkommando ” Jew who had
found his wife among the gassing victims (another legend of the Auschwitz
fabulists). However, he did not provide any important information on the
“ Sonderkommando,” such as the number of detainees assigned to it, their dis¬
tribution in day and night shifts, their denomination (206-B/207-B during the
months of April and May 1944, 57B, 58 B, 59 B, 60B, 61B during the months
from July to October 1944; see Mattogno 2016d, pp. 141-150).

Among the tasks attributed to the men of the “ Sonderkommando” by the
aforementioned fabulists was extracting the victims’ gold teeth and cutting
their hair. In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,”’ Hoss states the following
about this:

“Already during the first transports, Eichmann conveyed an order from the
RFSS according to which the gold teeth were to be removed from the corpses,
and the hair cut from the women. This job was also carried out by the special
unit [Sonderkommando], ” (My emphasis)

As I pointed out in Section 21, Hoss contradictorily claimed that the first
transports with Jews arrived at Auschwitz either in 1941 or in “the spring of
1942" - for the Auschwitz Museum in March (the start-up of “Bunker 1”).

Hoss’s statement is pure fantasy. It is well known that the order to cut the
hair of living, registered inmates was issued by Glucks on August 6, 1942. It
said (URSS-511):

“The head of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office, SS Obergrup-
penfuhrer Pohl, has decided after a report that human hair clipped off at con-

284

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

centration camps is to be reused. Human hair will be processed to industrial
felts and spun into yarn. [...] It is therefore decreed that hair clippings offe-
mal inmates is to be stored after disinfection. Hair clippings of male inmates
can be used only at a length of 20 mm and more. ”

With regard to gold teeth, no specific order is known. In his treatment of the
exploitation of the Auschwitz victims’ bodies, Andrzej Strzelecki relies in this
regard on Hoss’s above statement, but with a subterfuge (Strzelecki 2000, p.
404):

“When the first Jewish transports were sent to Auschwitz in 1942, Adolf Eich-
mann, director of RSHA Office IVB4, responsible for the extermination of the
Jewsp n ^ forwarded to the camp commandant Himmler’s order on the removal
of gold teeth from the Jews murdered in the gas chambers. ”

Strzelecki remained silent about that fact, however, that Eichmann is also said
to have conveyed the hair order according to Hoss, because Strzelecki knew
well that this order had been issued by the WVHA on August 6, 1942 (ibid ., p.
407).

Strzelecki mentions that gold teeth had been extracted from corpses al¬
ready since May 1942, that is to say, prior to cremations in the crematorium at
the Main Camp, and that 16,325 precious metal teeth had been extracted from
2,904 coipses as of December 1942. 214 These were recorded in special forms
headed “Inmate dental station of Auschwitz CC” and addressed to “The Polit¬
ical Department of Auschwitz CC,” in which the last and first name and the
registration number of the prisoner were noted whose corpse had been as¬
signed to the crematorium “for cremation,” and the number of extracted teeth
was of course also noted. 215 This procedure evidently aimed at preventing
abuse and theft. All existing forms refer to registered detainees. With regard to
those allegedly gassed, not even one single extraction of a precious metal
tooth seems to have been documented. Strzelecki does not explain this ex¬
traordinary fact. In fact, he does not even raise the issue.

To sum up, neither the orders for extracting gold teeth nor the one for reus¬
ing hair clippings was conveyed by Eichmann to Auschwitz. They were not
issued at the same time, but both later than the arrival of the first transports of
Jews at Auschwitz.

The Auschwitz fabulists included the real elements of cutting the hair of
living inmates and the extraction of gold teeth from the corpses of deceased,
registered inmates in the purely imaginary context of homicidal gassing - just
as they did it with the real element of Zyklon B, i.e. its use for pest control.

213 This phrase is also discordant with the orthodox narrative, according to which Eichmann was
merely responsible for transporting Jews to the “extermination camps,” but not for their extermi¬
nation.

214 Strzelecki 2000, p. 401; cf. Jan Sehn’s take on these documents: Hoss Trial, Vol. 3, pp. 84-86.

215 Strzelecki 2000, p. 402, reproduction of the relative fonn for the Jewish inmate Hoffmann Griza,
no. 29301.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

285

As for the gold teeth, during the afternoon interrogation of April 5, 1946,
when Hoss still had merely a superficial understanding of what was expected
of him, he asserted:

“ The dentist of the camp at Auschwitz was responsible for the melting of this

sold extracted from the teeth, and at the end of each month he personally
would take it to the Medical Chief Office in Berlin (Sanitaetshauptamt). [...]

Q. How did he carry the gold?

A. He melted it down into sold bars, which he kept locked in his safe, and
when he got the right amount, he would take them down to Berlin in that
shape.

[•••]•

Q. What was the size of the bars?

A. About twelve to fifteen inches long, about three inches high, and about three
inches thick. I saw a gold bar like that once. ” (My emphasis)

In Poland, Hoss learned that the new fairy tale had it that the gold was to be
melted by members of the “ Sonderkommando ,” so he changed his first ver¬
sion. In his essay “The non-medical activities of SS physicians at the Ausch¬
witz Concentration Camp,” Hoss noted:

“The dentists had to make sure by repeated spot checks that the inmate den¬
tists of the Sonderkommando pulled the gold teeth of all gassed victims and
threw them into the secured containers at hand. They moreover had to monitor
the meltins of the dental sold and its secure storage until its delivery. ” (My
emphasis)

What remains to be mentioned is the alleged size (and thus the weight) of the
gold bars obtained from the melting. Hoss speaks of “bars” measuring, in cen¬
timeters, 30.5 to 38.1 in length and 7.6 in height and width, or at least 1,761.7
cm 3 . Since the specific weight of yellow gold is 19.3 g/cm 3 , the smaller size
bar would have weighed (1,761.7 cm 3 x 19.3 g/m 3 =) 34 kilograms (75 lbs)!

According to Nyiszli, however, the gold was cast into disks of about 5 cm
in diameter and weighing 140 grams (see Mattogno 2018b/c, Part One, Chap¬
ter XI), which would correspond to a thickness of less than 4 millimeters!

Strzelecki merges the two contradictory elements by asserting that “the
metal was melted down into bars weighing 0.5 to 1 kilogram, or discs weigh¬
ing 140 grams” (Strzelecki 2000, p. 405; my emphasis).

The disks of 140 grams he took from Nyiszli’s tale, while the weight of the
“bars” is of an unknown source and not very credible. If we assume the small¬
est size given by Hoss (7.6 cm), a “bar” weighing 1 kg would be merely 2.6
cm high and wide!

Another task of the members of the “ Sonderkommando ” was allegedly to
find any children hidden under the piles of clothes in the “undressing room.”
In the “transcript” of the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, we read in
this regard:

286

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“It often happened repeatedly that women hid their little children among their
underwear and their clothes and didn’t take them along into the gas chambers.
The clothes were searched by the permanent unit of the cremation inmates un¬
der the SS in charge, and any children found that way were afterwards also
sent to the gas room. ”

During the confrontation with Moll on April 16, 1946, Hoss was questioned
on this point and declared:

“I think that this thing has been slightly misunderstood. The way this thing
happened is that mothers and babies with them, who would be wrapped in
blankets or cloth. The people had been told that they were going to take a
bath, they had no idea that they were going to be killed . It was not the idea, the
mothers did not want to take the children in with them to the bath and they left
them outside. Later on, the work detail from the administration, which was re¬
sponsible for them, would pick up the babies and put them in the gas chamber
then. ” (My emphasis)

Contrary to this, we read in the affidavit of April 5, 1946:

“Of course, frequently they realized our true intentions and we sometimes had
riots and difficulties due to that fact. Very frequently women would hide their
children under the clothes but of course when we found them we would send
the children in to be exterminated. ’’ (My emphasis)

Hence, the mothers at once did not and did know they were going to die.

39. The Transports to Auschwitz

In the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, this sentence appears:

“During these operations, usually 2-3 trains of2,000 each were brought in. ”

At Nuremberg, Hoss stated:

“During those 4 to 6 weeks two to three trains, containing about 2,000 per¬
sons each, arrived daily. ”

The minimum (2 trains per day for 4 weeks) corresponds to (2,000 x 2 x 4 x
7=) 112,000 deportees, the maximum (3 trains per day for 6 weeks) to
(2,000 x 3 x 6 x 7 =) 252,000 deportees. The result for the maximum is far be¬
low the number of Jews deported from Hungary (400,000). If we ignore this
deportation operation, which lasted about nine weeks, all the other operations
from countries mentioned by Hoss lasted not weeks but years. For example,
deportations from Poland started in May 1942 and ceased in September 1944
(Piper 2000a, pp. 183-186); deportations from France began in March 1942
and ended in April 1944 {ibid., pp. 187f.); those from the Netherlands took
place between July 1942 and September 1944 {ibid., pp. 189f.), and those
from Greece between March 1943 and August 1944 {ibid., p. 191).

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

287

Regarding the actual transports, we read in the handwritten note of April
23, 1946:

“These trains had been announced ahead of time via telegraph by the dis¬
patching department of Ostubaf. Eichmann at the RSHA, and they had certain
serial numbers with letters — in order to prevent a confusion with other inmate
transports. — Each telegram regarding these transporte had the annotation:
‘according to guidelines given and are to be subjected to special treatment . ’
These trains were enclosed freight cars and contained on average some 2,000
people. ” (My emphasis)

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution..Hoss fully confirms that assertion:

“ ‘Transport Jews ’ was the term for all Jews who were taken to the camp by
Eichmann's Office - RSHA IV B4. The reports announcing the arrival bore the
notice: 'The transport corresponds to the instructions given and is to be sub¬
jected to SB (special treatment) . ’ All other Jews of earlier times, that is before
the extermination order, were called ‘Jews in protective custody ’ or Jews of
other inmate categories. ”

The claim that the telex announcing a transport stated that it had to be subject¬
ed to “special treatment” is purely imaginary. During the Eichmann trial in Je¬
rusalem, a series of telexes of Department IV J of the Security Service in Paris
was introduced regarding the departure of deportation trains to Auschwitz.
They were addressed to Eichmann, to the “Inspector of Concentration Camps
in Oranienburg” and to the “Concentration Camp in Auschwitz,” and con¬
cerned the departure of transports of Jews from Le Bourget-Drancy “toward
Auschwitz” on the same day as the telex was sent. The documents in question
are: XXVc-75 (July 17, 1942), XXV-c-144 (Sept. 2, 1942), XXV-c-155 (Sept.
9, 1942), XXV-c-162 (Sept., 11, 1942), again XXV-c-162 (Sept. 14, 1942),
XXV-c-164 (Sept. 16, 1942), XXV-c-173 (Sept. 28, 1942), XXV-c-193 (Nov.
6, 1942), again XXV-c-193 (Nov. 9, 1942) and finally XXV-c-201 (Feb. 25,
1943), which is, however, addressed “To the Metz Police Commander and Se¬
curity Service.” The term “special treatment” is contained in none of these
documents. The text of them all follows the following pattern (telex of No¬
vember 9, 1942): 216

“Paris, Nov. 9, 1942

To the

Reich Security Main Office, Department IV B 4
c/o SS O ’Stubaf. Eichmann
Berlin
To the

Inspector of the Concen tration Camps
in Oranienburg

216 A copy of this document is also located in the Yad Vashem Archives, 0.51-118, p. 54.

288

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

To the Concentration Camp
in Auschwitz

On Nov. 9, 1942, transport train no. 901/37 has left the departure station Le
Burget-Drancy in direction Auschwitz at 8:55 AM with altogether 1,000 Jews.
The select circle of people conforms with the guidelines given.

Head of the transport is staff-sergeant Kruger, who was ziven two copies of
the transport list including names .

As usual, provisions given along for each Jew are for 14 days.

p.p.

(Rothke)

SS Ohersturmfuhrer” (my emphasis)

In the handwritten note of April 23, 1946, Hoss stated in reference to Jewish
transports and contrary to all documentary evidence that “lists with names
were not compiled”!

Hoss’s distinction between “transport Jews” and “Jews in protective custo¬
dy” is completely unfounded (the first were the Jews sent to Auschwitz by
Eichmann (RSHA), the others all those who had been taken “before the ex¬
termination order,” hence prior to June 1941). The Jews who came to Ausch¬
witz from 1942 onward were commonly called “Jews in protective custody”
(“ Schutzhaft-Juden ”), as can be gleaned from the lists of new arrivals, 217 and
those of the Jews transferred from elsewhere. For example, the Jews (almost
all Hungarians) who were transferred to Stutthof on August 14 and August 16,
1944, in two transports of 2,800 people each were all “Sch. H. P.” meaning
“Schutzhaft politisch,” meaning “protective custody, political,” and were rec¬
orded in the “book of admissions” (“ Einliefenmgsbuch ”) as “Sch. H. poli¬
tisch” (“ Schutzhaft politisch”) . 218 The Jewish inmates originally admitted from
the Lodz ghetto who were later sent from Auschwitz to Stutthof were also
listed as “Sch. H. P.” 219

At the end of this paragraph we must mention the nonsense attributed to
Eichmann by Hoss in his essay “The ‘Final Solution...’” regarding allegedly
planned transports of Jews from Romania and Bulgaria to Auschwitz:

“The next country on the list was Rumania. According to the reports from his
representative in Bucharest, Eichmann expected to get about 4,000,000 Jews
from there. [...]

In the meantime Bulgaria was to follow with an estimated two and a half mil¬
lion Jews. The authorities there were agreeable to the transport, but wanted to
wait on the results of the negotiations with Rumania. [...]

The course taken by the war destroyed these plans and saved the lives of mil¬
lions of Jews. ”

217 See for instance the list “Zugange am 27. Juni 1942: eingeliefert vom RSHA” whose first and last
pages were published in: Staatliches Museum..., illustrations, p. 56.

218 AMS, I-IIB-11, pp. 25-66 & 67-93; I-IIE-13.

219 The first transport of Aug. 28, 1944, contained 2,800 Jews. AMS, I-I1B-11, pp. 125-156.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

289

The Korherr Report contains demographic statistics of European Jews. It was
prepared on Himmler’s order and is therefore an official document compiled
for the SS. In it, the number of Jews living in Bulgaria (as of 1934) is given as
48,398; 984,213 Jews are listed as residing in Romania (as of 1930; NO-5194,
pp. 14f.).

It is easy to understand why Martin Broszat did not reproduce the contents
of these pages from Hoss’s essay.

40. The Number of Victims

Before tackling this issue, it is necessary to specify the position of orthodox
holocaust historiography in this respect. According to F. Piper, the undisputed
specialist in this field of study, 1,305,000 people were deported to Auschwitz,
1,082,000 of whom died there. This figure is divided by Piper into 880,000
unregistered, hence mostly gassed inmates, and 202,000 registered inmates,
that is, those who died of a “natural” death (Piper 1993, pp. 200-202).

As mentioned in Part One, Chapter 1, Section 1, Thomas Harding reported
that Hoss’s first statement made immediately after his arrest and before being
locked up in jail at Heide, was the admission that he was “personally respon¬
sible for the deaths of 10,000 people.”

In the “transcript” of the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, the
fateful figure three million suddenly appears:

“According to my estimate, some 3,000,000 people perished at Auschwitz it¬
self. / estimate that of these, 2,500,000 were gassed. ”

Hoss subsequently repeated these absurdities with an incredible tenacity, but
not without uncertainty. In his handwritten statement in English of March 16,
1946, he spoke of the “gassing of 2 million persons,” and also in his handwrit¬
ten declaration of May 14 mentioned the figure of “2 million Jews” gassed in
Auschwitz.

The affidavit of April 5, 1946, clearly states that the figure of 3 million
deaths

“represents about 70% or 80% of all persons sent to Auschwitz as prisoners,
the remainder having been selected and used for slave labor in the concentra¬
tion camp industries. ”

That means that no fewer than (3,000,000 a- 0.8 =) 3,750,000 people had been
deported to Auschwitz!

On April 2, 1946, he clearly stated that the difference between the two fig¬
ures mentioned above (500,000) consisted of inmates registered in the camp:
“Q. And how about the half of million, which were put to death by other
means?

A. They were those who died from diseases, and who perished by other sick¬
nesses in the camp. ”

290

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

This is another obvious absurdity. During the trial, the exact number of de¬
tainees registered in Auschwitz was determined: 408,499 people, of whom
300,000 were assumed to have died while in the camp. 220 As mentioned in
Part One, this is also the figure that appears in the court’s verdict. Hence,
Hoss’s absurd figure of 500,000 “normal” casualties was refuted and thus rec¬
ognized as false even by the Polish authorities!

At Nuremberg, Hoss testified with regard to these alleged 500,000 victims
that “it all goes back to the last years of the war, that is beginning with the end
of 1942.”

The total number of registered inmates who died in Auschwitz was around
135,000, about 48,500 of them in 1942 (Mattogno 2015d, p. 527). An analysis
of the Auschwitz Death Books ( Sterbebiicher ) yields a number of approxi¬
mately 8,500 deaths for the months of November and December 1942, so the
mortality, “beginning with the end of 1942,” was about 76,000 inmates, facts
which the former camp commandant must have known.

Why did Hoss proffer such an absurdity? The explanation is clear from the
general context in which he made his “confessions.”

To von Schirmeister, during his transfer to Nuremberg, Hoss confided:
“Certainly, / signed a statement that / killed two and a half million Jews. But I
could just as well have said that it was five million Jews. There are certain
methods by which any confession can be obtained, whether it is true or not. ”

During the interrogation on April 2, 1946, he explained:

“The reason why / remember the number, two and one-half million, is because
it was repeatedly told to me that Auschwitz was to have exterminated four or
five million, but that was not so. We had an order by the Reichsfuehrer of SS to
destroy all materials in numbers immediately, and not preserve any records of
the executions that were being carried out. ”

During his trial, Hoss was even more outspoken:

“When I was at first interrogated while in the British zone, those who interro¬
gated me said all the time that 5, 6, 7 million people must have been gassed
there, continually bombarding me with such enormous figures; [they insisted]
that / needed to have data to determine how many were gassed, and the com¬
mission told me [that there should have been] at least 3 million. Under the
suggestive influence of these big figures, / gave this figure of 3 million, but in¬
sisted repeatedly that I could not give any other figure than what / said now,
two and a half million. ”

At the time, the figure of 5 million was a “well-known fact” even for the
American investigators, as results, for example, from a passage of Bruno
Tesch’s interrogation of September 26, 1945: 221

220 United Nations Archives. Security Microfilm Program, 1988, Reel No. 62. Hoss Trial, 2nd Hear¬
ing, pp. 175 & 178.

221 Interrogation of Mr Bruno Tesch at Bad Oeynhausen, p. 7. TNA, WO 309/1603.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

291

“[Question], So if 5 millions were liquidated at Auschwitz, the gas came from
your business? [...]. 5 million people died from gassing in Auschwitz. ”

In practice, the British “ kn ew” from the Belsen Trial and from numerous tes¬
timonies extorted from German prisoners incarcerated in the London “cage”
that Auschwitz was an “extermination camp” in which 5-7 million people had
been gassed, and they extorted from Hoss by way of torture a “confession”
conforming to their desires. The former Auschwitz co mm andant gave a death
toll which is somewhere in the middle of what he was asked and what is as¬
sumed to be true today, but it is clearly false: 3 million.

He knew that this figure is false, because in the handwritten statement of
March 14, 1946, when recapitulating the Jewish transport that came to Ausch¬
witz, he tallied 1,135,000 deportees (although there is another inconsistency,
as will be seen). These deportees were broken down as follows:

Slovakia:

90,000

Greece:

65,000

France:

110,000

Belgium:

20,000

Netherlands:

90,000

Hungary:

400,000

Poland & Upper Silesia:

250,000

Germany & Theresienstadt:

100,000

Total: 1,125,000

During his trial, Hoss mentioned 95,000 deportees from Holland and 95,000
from “Czechoslovakia,” hence the total was 1,135,000.

Many figures are exaggerated. According to F. Piper, there were about
69,000 deportees from France, about 60,000 from the Netherlands, about
55,000 from Greece, about 64,000 from Germany and Theresienstadt, and
about 27,000 from Slovakia (Piper 1993, pp. 182-196).

It is certainly possible that Hoss did not remember them well, but it is a
fact that in the handwritten text these numbers are written with a much more
pronounced, heavier pencil stroke than the rest of the text, as if they were cor¬
rected, undoubtedly upwards.

At his trial, Hoss explicitly stated that “the figure I adduced [1,135,000] re¬
lates to the arrivals at Auschwitz” (my emphasis). In that case, since accord¬
ing to Hoss at least 25% of the deportees were registered, the number of gas¬
sing victims would be about (1,135,000 x 0.75 =) 850,000.

The inconsistency I just referred to concerns that fact that at one moment
Hoss considered these 1,125,000 or 1,135,000 Jews as deportees arriving at
Auschwitz, but at other moments as those allegedly gassed, as already said in
the “transcript” of the handwritten statement of March 16, 1946 (“2,500,000
were gassed”) and in many other statements mentioned below.

292

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

The former Auschwitz co mm andant felt strangely bound by the statements
that the British had extorted from him. He never retracted the figure of two
and a half million gassing victims. In fact, in an excess of zeal, he even made
it his own. In the affidavit of April 5, 1946, we read:

“I commanded Auschwitz until 1 December, 1943, and estimate that at least
2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gassing and burn¬
ing, and at least another half million succumbed to starvation and disease,
making la total dead of about 3,000,000. ”

The same phrase appears in German in the affidavit of May 20, 1946 (“and es¬
timate that at least 2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there
through gassing and burning”).

Gilbert summarized Hoss’s statements as follows:

“He readily confirmed that approximately 2 1/2 million Jews had been exter¬
minated under his direction. The exterminations began in the summer of
1941.”

Hoss told Goldensohn: “7 estimate about 2.5 million Jews.” Then he contra¬
dicted himself when answering a question:

“Do you think the figure might have been higher, perhaps as high as 3 million
or 4 million? ‘No, I think 2.5 million is too hish, but I have no proof. None of
the people exterminated were registered, only those who went to work were
registered in the camp. (My emphaisis)

Yet in the handwritten note of May 14, 1946, Hoss affirmed:

Although we know that the figure of 2 A million gassing victims was grossly
exaggerated - and therefore false - even with respect to the number of depor¬
tees, Hoss had the chutzpah to justify it “technically.” His note of April 23-24,
1946 was in fact his answer to a question posed by Goring:

“How is it technically possible in the first place to to exterminate 2 ‘A million
people within 3 V 2 years? ”

It is not worth analyzing his “demonstration” in detail, but the two most im¬
portant issues deserve to be highlighted.

First of all, at the end of his note, the usual list of transports amounting to a
total of 1,125,000 deportees reappears, which contradicts Hoss’s assertion of
demonstrating the possibility of exterminating 2'A million Jews at Auschwitz,
the figure considered real by him.

Secondly, Hoss stated that this figure relates to Jews deported to Ausch¬
witz, not those gassed, as Hoss has always maintained:

“Assuming a total of 2 1/2 million, who according to Eichmann were trans¬
ported to Auschwitz to be exterminated, that would mean that — on average — 2

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

293

transports daily with a total of 4,000 people — 25% of them fit for work —
hence 3,000 people were exterminated [every day]. Considering the gaps be¬
tween the individual operations of altogether 9 months, 27 months remain at
90,000 people each = 2,430,000 people. ” (My emphasis)

The reasoning is specious: if 2,500,000 Jews were “transported” to Auschwitz
and 75% were exterminated, the relative figure is evidently
(2,500,000 x 0.75 =) 1,875,000.

In the sworn statement of May 20, 1946, Hoss contradicted himself once
more. Talking about the total number of victims - 3 million - he commented:

“This number amounts to some 70 or 80% of all persons deported to Ausch¬
witz as prisoners; the remaining inmates were selected and used for slave la¬
bor in the factories in and around the concentration camp. ”

Assuming the average 75%, there must have been a total of (3,000,000 0.75)

4,000,000 deportees, 25% of whom were registered (as fit for labor) hence
(4,000,000 x 0.25 =) 1,000,000, to which the alleged 500,000 “normal” casu¬
alties mentioned above must be added. The 4,000,000 deportees are therefore
divided into 2,500,000 gassing victims and 1,500,000 registered inmates,
500,000 of whom had died. But the 75% share is also the one that refers to
those gassed, hence from 4 million deportees result 3 million gassing victims!

While in Poland, Hoss distanced himself from the 2 Vi million figure. In his
essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” he noted:

“I can no longer remember the figures for the smaller actions, but they were
insignificant in comparison with the numbers given above. I resard a total of
two and a half millions as far too high . Even Auschwitz had limits to its de¬
structive possibilities. Figures given by former prisoners are figments of the
imagination and lack any foundation. ” (My emphasis)

As noted in Part One, the small deportation operations are virtually without
any influence on the total: about 10,000 deported from Yugoslavia, about
7,500 from Italy, less than 700 from Norway (Piper 1993, p. 196, 198).

How can the enormously contrasting figures of 2,500,000 gassing victims
versus 1,135,000 deportees or gassing victims be explained? Hoss did not
want to explicitly admit that he invented the former under the heavy pressure
exerted by the British investigators, and by intentionally adhering to it, he
turned it into a lie. Then, in an attempt to obfuscate it, he invented another lie:
that the figure of two and a half million had been communicated by Eichmann
- but this tale also contains the usual contradictions.

Since Eichmann, the deus ex machina, enters the scene already in the
“transcript” of the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946, it is uncertain
whether it can be attributed to Hoss, but that is rather irrelevant, because he
maintained that storyline in many subsequent declarations.

In said “transcript,” it says that the figure in question was mentioned by
Eichmann “while reporting to the Reichsfuhrer in April 1945.”

294

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

In subsequent weeks, Hoss began to enrich this story. On April 2, he said:

“I again refer back to the statement made to me by Eichmann in March or
April, 1944 , when he had to go and report to [the] Reichsfuehrer that his office
had turned over two and one-half million to the camp ” (My emphasis)

At Nuremberg, Hoss confirmed:

“Dr. Kauffmann: Is it furthermore true that Eichmann stated to you that in
Auschwitz a total sum of more than 2 million Jews had been destroyed?

Hoess: Yes” (My emphasis)

With reference to 1945, the former Auschwitz commandant said to Golden-
sohn:

“ Eichmann told me before he went to Himmler that in Auschwitz alone 2.5
million people were killed by gassing” (My emphasis)

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution..he noted:

“Eichmann gave me that number when he was ordered to report to the RFSS
in April 1945. I had no records at all. To my best knowledge, this number ap¬
pears to be too high, however. ” (My emphasis)

Then he adds:

“During previous interrogations / have put the number of Jews who arrived in
Auschwitz for extermination at two and a half millions. This figure was sup¬
plied by Eichmann who save it to my superior officer, Gruppenfiihrer Glucks,
when he was ordered to make a report to the Reichsfuhrer SS shortly before
Berlin was surrounded. ” (My emphasis)

During his trial, Hoss confirmed that Eichmann “is based on Eichmann’s as¬
sertions, who had given this figure to the head of the Inspectorate of the Con¬
centration Camps Glucks in April 1945, just before the collapse of the Reich.”
(My emphasis)

According to this, Eichmann therefore did not communicate that number
directly to Hoss, but rather to Glucks. Contradicting this, Hoss stated a short
while later:

“Just yesterday I said that, in the case of two and a half million, / had this fig¬
ure from Eichmann, who had given it to the inspector of the concentration
camps. ”

It would have been made more sense to say that he had received the figure
from Glucks, to whom Eichmann had given it. Hoss flip-flopped between the
two versions without ever settling for one of them. Just seconds later, Hoss
told this very detailed story:

“Prosecutor: So two and a half million was the figure Eichmann pointed out
in his report?

Defendant: Just prior to the collapse of Germany, Eichmann had been ordered
to go to Himmler and to report once more the total figures of all exterminated

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

295

Jews. At the time of that journey, he was at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp
for an inspection on behalf of Glucks; they ordered me to show up at that
meeting. When I got out of the room, Eichmann told me the number of 2 and a
half million with regard to Auschwitz. As to -what has been said before, I do
not know whether this is the actual figure of Jews brought to Auschwitz for
gassing. ”

Apart from this contradiction, the whole story makes no sense at all. From his
position, Eichmann could and must have kn own the number of Jews deported
to Auschwitz, but not those allegedly exterminated, because this depended on
local “selections.” This is demonstrated by the two versions of the Korherr
Report, even from the orthodox perspective. We find there that until Decem¬
ber 31, 1942, 5,849 Jews had been deported to Auschwitz (NO-5194, p. 12),
but with the following caveat (ibid., p. 11):

“Not included are the Jews accommodated in the concentration camps Ausch¬
witz and Lublin in the course of the evacuation operations. ” (My emphasis)
Korherr recorded 159,518 Jews deported from France, Flolland, Belgium,
Norway, Greece, Slovakia and Croatia until March 31, 1943 (NO-5193, p. 6),
of which 46,790 were registered in Auschwitz and 7,969 were taken off the
trains at Kosel (Graf/Kues/Mattogno, p. 320). However, of the 56,691 Jews
deported from Slovakia, only 18,725 went to Auschwitz, and 12,683 of them
were registered (Piper 1993, pp. 195f.). Hence, there were in total 121,552 de¬
portees from those countries who ended up in Auschwitz. This data came from
Eichmann’s office, which confirms that he could not have any knowledge of
the number of those allegedly gassed, and less so of those gassed at Ausch¬
witz.

Hoss himself confirmed during the interrogation on April 2, 1946 that
“Eichmann had nothing to do with selecting those who were fit for labor. His
office took no interest in this question at all.”

On the other hand, Hoss’s frequent assurances that he could not possibly
know the number of those exterminated at Auschwitz are empty and incon¬
sistent. In particular, in his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” he stated that he
had “no point of reference” to establish “the total number,” and explained his
reason as follows:

“In accordance with orders given by the Reichsfiihrer SS, after every large ac¬
tion all evidence in Auschwitz on which a calculation of the number of victims
might be based had to be burnt. ”

He stated that, when he was head of Department DI of the WVHA, he “per¬
sonally destroyed every bit of evidence” and only “isolated documents, tele¬
printer messages, or wireless messages” could have been left, but that these
did not permit a reconstruction of “the total number.”

If we assume for the moment, without conceding this, that the story about
the extermination is true and that all reports about the number of victims were

296

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

destroyed, the Auschwitz administration always had, in addition to the various
telexes, the lists of Jewish transports (many of which are preserved in the
Auschwitz Museum’s archives), the numbering of the registered prisoners, the
lists of Jews transferred to other camps and the Death Books ( Sterbebiicher ),
that is to say, the records of deceased registered inmates. Based on these doc¬
uments, it would be possible to establish the number of those exterminated
with great precision.

But there was also another way to accurately determine the number of gas¬
sing victims. F. Piper states that the number of registered Jews was about
205,000 (ibid., p. 200). To these, we have to add 25,000 “non-registered in¬
mates” (ibid. , p. 201). In fact, about 100,000 Jews belong to this category of
inmates who merely passed through the Birkenau Transit Camp between May
and October 1944, 222 which must have been known to Hoss, so the total num¬
ber of prisoners admitted to the camp was about 305,000. If they represented
25% of all Jews deported to Auschwitz, the total number was on the order of
(305,000-^0.25=) 1,220,000. The transports of Jews who were allegedly
gassed upon arrival in their entirety (a contradictory and fictitious tale, as I
have shown earlier) would not have affected this figure.

If we then keep in mind that even Hoss’s own estimate of the total number
of Jews deported to Auschwitz amounted to 1,135,000, the story of two and a
half million gassing victims appears even more absurd.

In this context it is worth mentioning another one of Hoss’s bloopers with
which he destroyed his own fairy tale, that is, the following statement by him
made during his trial in Warsaw:

“Himmler received precise weekly reports on all the camps, and a special re¬
port on Auschwitz was issued since mid-1941. Certainly nothing was exagger¬
ated in these reports. There were therefore accurate information on the num¬
ber of those unable to work, on the fluctuations taking place, that is to say, ex¬
terminations , new transports, etc. The same thing happened for each opera¬
tion. The reports were compiled by [my] adjutant, and Himmler kept these re¬
ports coming from Auschwitz. Hence, these extermination plans for Auschwitz
certainly did not come from me. ” (Emphasis added)

It is well known that the British intercepted and decoded numerous German
encrypted radio messages relating to Auschwitz. Richard Breitman noted in
this regard (Breitman, p. 113):

“During 1942, however, a number of camps, Auschwitz among them, reported
by radio almost daily the number of additions and subtractions to the camp
prisoner population. Following instructions, they also broke down their total
number of prisoners by the major categories — Germans, Jews, Poles, and

222 Strzelecki 1995, p. 352. With certainty some 70,000 Hungarian Jews (men and women) and at
least 11,464 Jews from the Lodz Ghetto passed through that transit camp; Mattogno 2007, pp. 19f.
Drywa, p. 17.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

297

Russians. With one big exception (explained below), British intelligence could
and did, with some delay, track the changing population and mortality at
Auschwitz. ”

However, these statistics, Breitman explains, refer only to registered inmates:

“They omitted all Jews (and the smaller number of Gypsies) selected for the
gas chambers immediately upon arrival. ’’ (My emphasis)

It can be objected that there were no “omissions” because there was nothing to
be omitted and to be communicated about alleged gassings (when there were
executions to be reported, as in the case of police battalions in Russia, radio
messages stated this explicitly; see Terry), but that’s not the point. The point is
that these reports did not contain any references to exterminations, so even
this statement by Hoss is wrong in this regard.

There is one last point worth mentioning. American investigators noted the
obvious contrast between Eichmann’s alleged 2,500,000 and Hoss’s 1,125,000
victim count, but they ignored it.

During the Hoss trial in Warsaw, however, Hoss was asked about this ex¬
plicitly. He replied:

“Eichmann did not give me any number , [he gave it] only to [my] boss, the in¬
spector of all the concentration camps, Glucks. I was invited to that confer¬
ence, and on that occasion, I heard that, speaking of Auschwitz, this figure
was mentioned. This is the only figure / remember regarding the figures pro¬
vided by Eichmann.

Prosecutor: Did the defendant correct this figure?

Defendant: No. / could not argue with Eichmann about this issue because he
had to leave. ” (My emphasis)

Hence, although Hoss knew that Eichmann’s alleged figure was more than
twice that of the Auschwitz deportees, he did not correct it or speak out about
it. Instead, he tried to make everyone believe that he considered this figure to
be so reliable that he threw it around left and right as the real figure of gassing
victims!

In reality, even the alleged “report to the RFSS” in April 1945 is a pure in¬
vention, for we can be certain that at that time Hi mm ler had other concerns
than to summon Eichmann in order to be told exactly how many Jews had
been gassed!

Moreover, Eichmann strongly denied ever mentioning, on any occasion,
the number of 2,500,000 Auschwitz gassing victims (Aschenauer, p. 496):

“I always considered the number of 2 1/2 million Jews exterminated in Ausch¬
witz to be most unbelievable, because already the capacity of the camp speaks
against it. Moreover, I have never directed that many Jews to Auschwitz. ”

In Eichmann’s opinion, Hoss had made a “statement underpressure” (ibid.).

298

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

41. Himmler’s Order to Stop the Extermination

Hoss sure was very liberal in spreading his fairy tale about the alleged “exter¬
mination order” (as he defined it in his statement of January 29, 1947) which
he wants to have received from Himmler in June 1941, but that tale created an
important historical problem: if the extermination of the Jews was set in mo¬
tion by a Hi mm ler order in 1941, it also had to be stopped by another order
from Himmler. During the preparations running up to the Nuremberg Tribu¬
nal, this gap was willingly filled by former SS Standartenfiihrer Kurt Becher
with his March 8, 1946 affidavit, in which he stated that “roughly between
mid-September and mid-October 1944” he had obtained from Himmler an or¬
der of the following tenor (PS-3762):

“I prohibit any annihilation of Jews with immediate effect, and on the contrary
order the nursing of weak and sick persons. I hold you (with this, Kaltenbrun-
ner and Pohl were meant) personally responsible for this, even if this order is
not strictly followed by subordinate departments. ”

This statement was undoubtedly unknown to the British officials who interro¬
gated Hoss, but not to the American investigators and even less to the Poles,
who showed it to Hoss in late January 1947 during the interrogations leading
up to his trial. Becher’s affidavit, however, did not cater enough to the Allied
propaganda, which aimed at presenting the tragic situation inside the German
concentration camps in the spring of 1945 with their immense piles of corpses
of victims of disease and deprivations as the result of a deliberate policy of ex¬
termination.

The fact that Bergen-Belsen was mentioned several times in Hoss’s state¬
ment of March 14, 1946, is certainly explained by the pressure exerted by his
British interrogators. On page 6 of the “transcript” appears a long description
of the conditions reigning in this camp in March 1945:

“In particular the camp BELSEN was in a chaotic state. lOOOWQs of dead lay
unburied near the provisional crematorium. The sewage could not be disposed
of. The construction of emergency latrines was started immediately. The al¬
ready started expansion of the mud basins was accelerating. Obergruppenf.
Pohl gave Kramer the order, by means of greater units, to gather all the edible
wild herbs in the surrounding forests that could be gathered, and to add them
to food. An increase in the food rations could not be carried out since the state
nutrition office refused to allocate [more] to the BELSEN camp. I personally
advised KRAMER, because he did not make any progress with the cremation
due to a lack of wood, to immediately cut the necessary wood from the state
forest that could be reached by night. In my presence, shortly afterwards, I de¬
termined that some improvements had been made in terms of accommodation
and sewage, but that the basic problem of the lack of nutrition could not be
counteracted. Because of the evacuation transports from MITTELBAU, which
started shortly afterwards, everything became illusory. ”

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

299

In March 1946, Hoss tried to resolve both problems when telling about his
mission in March 1945 (see Section 44): on the one hand, he considered the
order to stop the extermination; on the other hand, he delayed that order al¬
most until the liberation of the camps, so that the corpses found by the Allies
still could have been the result of the alleged extermination program.

During his detention in Nuremberg, Hoss became aware of the content of
Becher’s affidavit. It was presented to the Tribunal and read by Colonel Amen
during Kaltenbrunner’s interrogation at the hearing of April 12, 1946. 223 The
American interrogators questioning the former Auschwitz commandant obvi¬
ously were aware of that affidavit right from the start and had no doubt al¬
ready mentioned it to Hoss, because Hoss suddenly brought up that issue dur¬
ing his interview with Goldensohn on April 9:

“From the time you left Auschwitz until the end of the war, how many people
were exterminated there? ‘The figure 2.5 million takes care of 1944'. Where
there any exterminated in 1945? ‘No, at the end of 1944 the whole thing
stopped. It was forbidden by Himmler. ' What happened to the transports that
arrived in 1945? ‘Hardly any transports arrived in 1945, and the only people
who came were those able to work. ’ Why did the exterminations stop? Was it
because there were no more Jews to exterminate? ' In November 1944 I was
with Eichmann in Budapest and he told me that there were negotiations going
between Himmler and representatives of the Jews in Switzerland through vari¬
ous middlemen and that from then on exterminations would have to stop im¬
mediately . '

When do you figure the last exterminations occurred? Hoess thinks and rubs
his hand together. He finally says: 7 am not sure, but I think in October
1944 . ’ ” (My emphasis)

The alleged order, for which no documentary trace has been found, would
necessarily have been passed through the WVHA, and thus through Hoss’s
hands, so the fact that he did not even remember the exact month when this al¬
leged order was issued is completely unbelievable.

Hoss returned to the question in his statement of 11 January 1947, in which
he recalled the alleged order of November 1944 and attributed it to negotia¬
tions between Becher and a certain “Weissmann.”

On January 31, 1947, Hoss commented as follows the Becher Document
PS-3762 that had been shown to him by the Poles:

At the Warsaw Hoss trial, the defendant stated that the alleged order had been
issued by Hi mm ler “at the end of October 1944” and explained it as follows:

223 IMT, Vol. XI, pp. 333-335.

300

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“ When this happened, that is, when the order arrived that it was forbidden to
kill Jews, / was sent by Obergruppenfiihrer Pohl to the Reich Security Main
Office, to Gruppenfuhrer Muller, head of the Gestapo and at the same time
Kaltenbrunner’s deputy, to learn from him why this order had been issued.
Muller could not give me any information on this and directed me to Eich-
mann, who was negotiating with a certain Becher in Switzerland and Turkey.
For this reason, I was sent to Budapest to ascertain whether the extermination
operation of the Jews had been suspended only temporarily [or] whether it was
of a terminal nature, and to learn about the reason [of the revocation] of the
extermination order of the Jews. ”

The order, according to Hoss, was issued because the Jews negotiating with
Becher in Switzerland and Turkey for the release of Jews in exchange for war
materials had set the cessation of the extermination as a precondition. The
next section will deal with the real motive of Hoss’s visit to Budapest.

42. Hoss in Budapest

In his profile of Eichmann, Hoss wrote:

“On Pohl’s orders, I was in Budapest three times in order to determine the
approximate expected numbers of able-bodied workers. ”

But with regard to these visits, he gave rather contorted accounts. On April 2,
1946, when interviewed by Sender Jaari, he declared:

“Q. Why did you go to Budapest in May 1944?

Hoss stated that Glucks had ordered him to get in touch with the head of the
Gestapo, Heinrich Muller, to obtain the above information. Muller, however,
was unable to give him that information and told him to turn directly to Eich¬
mann, who at that time was in Budapest. Hoss went there and met him:

“Q. In the Hotel Astoria in Budapest?

A. No. I was never in any hotel in Budapest, but I was in his office on

Schwabenbers in Budapest .

Q. Where did you stay in Budapest?

A. I stayed with Eichmann in his house . ” (My emphasis)

Jaari then asked Hoss about the result of this meeting:

“Q. So when you saw Eichmann, what did he tell you?

A. He also could not give an exact figure, but that it was estimated about two
million Jews were present in Hungary’.

Q. And all two million were to be sent to Auschwitz?

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

301

A. He said right away this estimate in his opinion was too high. He did not
know how many there were, but that he believed that number was too much.

Q. Did he feel sorry he could not get two millions?

A. No, he merely said that was not correct.

Q. How many did he expect to get from Hungary?

A. Half a million .

Q. All for labor purposes?

A. No, Eichmann had nothing to do with selecting those who were fit for labor.
His office took no interest in this question at all.

Q. They only had the interest of setting them exterminated, hadn’t they?

A. Yes .

Q. So Eichmann could not give you any figures. Who gave you the figuers?

A. Nobody could sive me any information.

Q. Who was present at that discussion with Eichmann in his office?

A. So far I know they were Eichmann, Hunsche and Brunner.

Q. And Wisliceny?

A. I met him later in Mungatz” (My emphasis)

According to the Korherr Report, there were 444,567 Jews in Hungary on the
basis of the 1930 census, and 750,000 based on one conducted in 1940, a fig¬
ure corresponding to the “new territorial situation,” meaning the territories an¬
nexed by Hungary from various neighboring countries between 1938 and
1940. It is therefore absurd to claim that the RSHA had an idea of the number
of Jews living in Hungary, and that this was estimated at two million.

The deportation of the Jews from Hungary originated in the agreement be¬
tween Hitler and the regent of Hungary, Miklos Horthy, signed in Klessheim
Castle, Salzburg, on March 18, 1944, according to which Horthy made availa¬
ble to Germany 100,000 Jewish workers with their families. The first two
transports of this contingent, 1,800 and 2,000 “Jewish workers,” left for
Auschwitz on April 28, 1944 (Braham 1963, p. 363). A telegram of May 2,
1944, by Eberhard von Thadden, head of Department Domestic Affairs II ( In¬
land II) and reporting secretary on Jewish affairs ( Judenreferent ) to the Ger¬
man Foreign Office at the German Embassy in Bratislava, contained the fol¬
lowing information (ibid., p. 364):

“Timetable for the transport of a larger number of Hungarian Jews to work
deployment in the eastern territories will be compiled in Vienna on 4-5 May. ”

Subsequently, the Germans put the Hungarians under pressure and gained
permission to deport a much larger number of Jews. Rudolf Kastner recon¬
structed the story as follows: 224

“While an agreement was arrived at between Wesenmayer, German Minister
and a representative of Sauckel on the one hand, and Prime Minister Sztojay,
on the other, that Hungary would place 300,000 Jewish workers at the dispos-

224 Affidavit by Rezso (Rudolph) Kastner of September 13, 1945. PS-2606.

302

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

al of the Reich (who were to be selected by a mixed Hungarian-German com¬
mittee), total deportation of all Jews was decided by Endre, Baky and Aich-
mann [Eichmann] at a meeting in the Ministry of the Interior on the 14 April
1944. "

Already on May 4, 1944, Edmund Veesenmeyer, the Plenipotentiary of the
Reich in Hungary, told the German Foreign Office (Braham 1963, p. 366):

“The removal of 310,000 Jews from Zone I and II to Germany is scheduled to
begin in mid-May, meaning that every day four transports of3,000 Jews each
are planned. ”

On May 9, Hitler ordered the withdrawal of 10,000 men from Sevastopol in
order to guard the approximately 200,000 Jews who were to be sent to con¬
centration camps in Germany to be employed in the “Fighter Construction
Program” ( Jdger-Bauprogramm ; NO-5689). The project was also mentioned
by Himmler on May 24, 1944 in the speech to German generals at Sonthofen
(Smith/Peterson, p. 203):

“Currently, however — it is peculiar in this war — we first introduce 100,000,
and later once more 100,000 male Jews from Hungary into concentration
camps, with whom we build undergroundfactories. ”

In this context, Hoss’s alleged visit to Budapest makes no sense, and in fact
his visit is not supported by any document. David Cesarani says that “Hoss
made three visits to Budapest during the spring [1944]” (Cesarani, p. 172), but
without reference to any source, which is without doubt Hoss’s profile of
Eichmann as mentioned above. Randolph L. Braham, in his detailed two-
volume study on The Holocaust in Hungary, never mentions Hoss (Braham
1981).

As I pointed out in Part One, Hoss took over the position of Head of the
Auschwitz SS Garrison (SS Standortaltester) from Liebehenschel on May 8,
1944, and the first transports resulting from the mass deportation of Hungarian
Jews arrived on May 16 (Czech 1989, p. 776). Hence, when in May would
Hoss have gone to Budapest, and why? The number of 100,000 Jews fit for
work had already been determined in mid-March, so his mission made no
sense. I will return to this below.

Hoss stated that while in Budapest when visiting Eichmann, he “was never
in any hotel,” but had been “in [Eichmann’s] office on Schwabenberg.” He
had been asked about the Hotel Astoria, where SS Obersturmbannfiihrer
Hermann Krumey resided, Eichmann’s deputy. They arrived in Budapest on
March 21, 1944, and put up first at Hotel Majestic in the Schwabenberg dis¬
trict. A week later, Eichmann and his staff moved to a large villa on Apostol
Street, a short distance away, but: “They used Hotel Majestic for offices” (Ce¬
sarani, p. 163).

Hence, if Hoss visited Eichmann “in his office,” that would have been in a
hotel, which Hoss denied.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

303

In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” the former Auschwitz commandant
complicated his tale even more:

“On the occasion of my business trip to Eichmann at Budapest in the summer
of 1943, he disclosed to me the additionally planned Jewish operations.

At that period of time, a little more than 200,000 Jews from the Carpathian-
Ukraine had been arrested and, housed in brickyards, were awaiting their
transport to Auschwitz.

From Hungary, Eichmann expected about 3 million Jews according to the es¬
timate of the Hungarian police, who had also carried out the arrests.

The arrests and transportation should have been curried out in 1042 , but be¬
cause of the Hungarian government’s political difficulties, the date was re¬
peatedly postponed. ” (My emphasis)

The date is obviously wrong: it was neither in 1943, but in 1944, nor during
the summer, but in spring. Hoss claimed that the first operation concerning
Hungarian Jews ( i.e. their deportation to Auschwitz) had taken place in 1943,
which is pure imagination, as is the estimate of three million Hungarian Jews.
During his trial in Warsaw, Hoss affirmed:

“The larger transports were those coming from Hungary. As far as I remem¬
ber, it was in the years 1943 and 1944, altogether 400,000 people. They were
Jewish [from] Hungary. ”

“ ‘Operation Hoss’ was not an official name. I was in Hungary in 1943 as
well, and I fail to see why this operation was not called ‘Operation Hoss ’ as
well, but only the one of 1944. It was officially called ‘Operation R.S.H.A. ”’
(My emphasis)

Caipatho-Ruthenia, which was Gendarmerie District VIII, or “Zone I” for the
Germans, was the first territory where the local Hungarian Jews were put into
camps. In the already-mentioned telegram of May 4, 1944, Veesenmeyer
communicated to the German Foreign Office (NG-2262):

“Ghettoization work in the Carpathian Mountains /Zone 1/ completed these
days. Around 200,000 Jews are gathered in 10 camps and ghettoes. In
Siebenbiirgen /Zone II/, the concentration of the Jews living in this region was
initiated today. The removal of310,000 Jew’s from Zone I and II to Germany is
scheduled to begin in mid-May, meaning that every day four transports of
3,000 Jews each are planned.

On May 4, a timetable conference will take place in Vienna for these trans¬
ports, where representatives of the Reichsbahn, the Security Police and the
Hungarian police will participate. ”

Hoss would then have traveled to Budapest between the beginning of May and
May 15 (the day on which the deportations began).

During his trial, Hoss provided a completely different narrative of his al¬
leged visit to Budapest - both regarding who ordered him to go to Budapest
and regarding the purpose:

304

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“In that same period, Eichmann, who was in charge of organizing all Jewish
transports, turned to his superior office, the Reich Security Main Office, stat¬
ing that it would be possible to send these intensified transports from Hungary
only if Auschwitz were able to process all the transports that were to arrive
and that would still be sent to Auschwitz. On the occasion of [his] visit to
Auschwitz, he found that Crematorium 5, which was used for open-air crema¬
tion, was out of use, and that it had not even been considered and even been
neglected to upgrade the railway siding existing at the camp. Based on this re¬
port, Reichsfiihrer Himmler ordered me personally to cariy out this operation
at Auschwitz. Eichmann had provided for four transports per day in his sched¬
ule, but these could not have been processed even by upgrading all existing fa¬
cilities. For this reason, / had to go to Eichmann personally in Budapest and
cancel this arrangement. Then this issue was regulated in such a way that on
one day two trains had to leave to Auschwitz, while three trains could be sent
on every other day. / know with certainty that the program agreed upon in Bu¬
dapest with the railway authorities provided a total of 111 transports of that
kind. When the first transports arrived at Auschwitz, Eichmann also came in
person for this [to check] whether it was possible to provide for further trains,
because the Reichsfiihrer demanded that this Hungarian operation be expedit¬
ed very much. These were the facts that contributed to this. ”

According to this, the deportation of the Hungarian Jews aimed from the out¬
set at their extermination, which, as I have shown above, is wrong, since orig¬
inally only those fit for work were to be deported, initially 100,000 of them.
Himmler, who in his speech to the German generals of May 24, 1944, referred
to the deportation of 200,000 Hungarian Jews fit for labor deployment in the
“fighter construction program,” is said to have ordered Hoss to exterminate
them instead at Auschwitz. According to Hoss, the deportation pace of four
trains a day was Eichmann’s decision, yet the documents prove that this deci¬
sion was made during the timetable conference in Vienna on May 4-5, 1944.
Its result was communicated by von Thadden to the German Embassy in Bu¬
dapest with a telegram dated May 6 (Braham 1963, p. 370):

“According to information conveyed by the Reich Security Main Office, 4 Jew¬
ish transports will be run every day along the transport route Carpatho-
Ukraine, Kaschau, Muszyna, Tamo, Krakow. ”

Hoss, on the other hand, claimed to have gone to Budapest in order to “cancel
this arrangement” just around the time when that decision was made and im¬
plemented!

But then, Hoss flip-flopped during his trial, contradicted the version he had
initially told to the court:

“Then, with regard to the organization of all the transports from Hungary, I
could not imagine to go to Hungary, as the camp commander and [later] head
of Office D 1, and organize there these larse transports of these Hungarian
Jews without the knowledse of the Gestapo. Pohl sent me there in order to es-

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

305

tablish roughly how many individuals fit for labor could be expected from the

large operations undertaken by Eichmann. This figure was necessary because
Himmler had provided 200,000 workers to the Armaments Department, which

basically were not there in general, but Pohl had received the order from the
supreme head of the concentration camps to obtain this figure, no matter how
and where he could get it. For this reason, I had to ascertain in Hungary how
many among the Jews reported by him or the Hungarian police were able to
work. ” (My emphasis)

In light of what I explained earlier, these statements are even more dubious.
Now, Hoss even became the organizer of these transports, while not being
able to imagine how he could do it “without the knowledge of the Gestapo.”
Of course - duh! - because that would have meant in practice without Eich-
mann’s knowledge, who was at the same time the one who actually organized
these “large operations”!

And how would it have been possible to organize the transport of the Hun¬
garian Jews during that railway timetable conference at Vienna on May 4-5,
1944 (NG-5565), if the number of Jews to be transported was yet to be deter¬
mined by Hoss?

Pohl, the head of the WVHA, “had received the order from the supreme
head of the concentration camps” - that is, by his subordinate Glucks! - to
procure 200,000 Jews fit for work.

Hoss reinterpreted the events according to the new script that had been
foisted upon him by the British. The 200,000 Jews he mentioned were those
arrested by the Hungarian Gendarmerie in District VIII, but the 111 transports
did not concern these Jews. At a meeting on May 9, 1944, the Hungarian and
German authorities agreed on a transport schedule of 110 deportation trains,
each of which would contain 3,000 Jews (Braham 1981, Vol. II, p. 601). This
results in the plan of deporting 330,000 Jews.

The purpose of Hoss’s visit to Budapest, namely finding out how many of
the Hungarian Jews were fit for work, makes no sense, because that selection
process had to be carried out in Auschwitz itself.

During his trial, Hoss provided further clarification on the subject:

“When I met Eichmann in Budapest in May 1944, he told me that the Hungar¬
ian police had established that in the second operation — the first operation
had occurred in 1943 — they reckoned with 5,000 [sic] arrests. Together with
Eichmann, I managed [to enter] various camps with the head of the Hungarian
police, and with the help of the Jewish elders, I myself managed to calculate
how many were able to work, and obtained a figure of 33% . Later, when we
transported 200,000 [Hungarian Jewsl to Auschwitz , that is, in 11 [recte: 111]
railway transports, it turned out that 30% were able to work . ”

The figure of 5,000 is clearly a mistake, and it was no doubt 500,000, but until
May 15, only 288,333 or 289,357 Jews were arrested from Zones I and II

306

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

(Districts VIII, IX and X), who were deported between May 15 and June 7
{ibid., p. 607).

The 200,000 Jews deported in 111 trains are the ones mentioned above, but
it is unclear why Hoss mentioned this partial figure instead of the total one,
which he estimated at some 400,000. Based on the percentage of those unfit
for work, some (400,000 x 0.70 =) 280,000 of these Jews should have fallen
victim to the gas chambers, but Hoss explicitly stated that the number of Hun¬
garian Jews gassed was 400,000 (“We executed about 400,000 Hungarian
Jews alone at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944,” affidavit of April 5, 1946).
It is not possible that they accounted for 70% of the deportees, because in that
case there would have been some (400,000 0.70 =) 571,000 deportees in to¬

tal, when the actual final figure reported by Veesenmeyer was 437,402 depor¬
tees (NG-5615), of which about 398,000 ended up in Auschwitz (Mattogno
2007, p. 39).

Returning to the beginning of this section, Hoss’s statement that he had
traveled to Budapest “three times in order to determine the approximate ex¬
pected numbers of able-bodied workers” is at best confusing. This particular
fictitious visit to determine the ratio of “able-bodied workers” was only one of
these three visits. If we follow Hoss’s fairy tale, his first visit would have tak¬
en place in 1943 and was just as fictitious. The third, in his view, took place in
November 1944. He first spoke about it to Goldensohn:

“In November 1944 / was with Eichmann in Budapest and he told me that
there were negotiations going between Himmler and representatives of the

Jews in Switzerland through various middlemen and that from then on exter¬
minations would have to stop immediately . ” (My emphasis)

During his trial in Warsaw, he stated:

“For this reason, I was sent to Budapest to ascertain whether the extermina¬
tion operation of the Jews had been suspended only temporarily [or] whether it
was of a terminal nature, and to learn about the reason [of the revocation] of
the extermination order of the Jews . ” (My emphasis)

This issue is closely related to Hi mm ler’s alleged order to stop the alleged ex¬
termination, which was dealt with in Section 41.

It must first be noted that the two statements cited above are contradictory.
According to the first, Hoss learned from Eichmann in Budapest about Himm¬
ler’s order, while according to the second, he already knew the order while in
Berlin, and was sent to Budapest to inquire about the reasons.

Both statements are somewhat peculiar: the WVHA was headquartered in
Berlin, so why would it have been necessary to travel to Budapest to ask for
information about a presumed Hi mm ler order that could have been obtained
directly from Himmler or from Kaltenbrunner or Gestapo Chief Muller?

Rudolf Kastner, in his famous “Report,” told the story of Hoss’s visit in a
section titled “The Auschwitz Commandante Opposes the March on Foot.”

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

307

On October 18, 1944, Eichmann agreed with the new Hungarian Minister
of the Interior Gabor Vajna on the delivery of “50,000 male Jews fit for work”
who had to be walked to their “deployment at the south-eastern fortification”
(“Einsatz am SiidostwalF). Subsequently, the deployment of another set of
50,000 Jews was planned (NG-5570). Veesenmeyer’s telegram to the German
Foreign Office of October 20 informs us that on this day the “selection of
male Jews fit for work aged between 16 through 60” had begun {ibid).

In a telegram of October 26, they reported that 25,000 Jews aged between
16 and 60 had been registered as of then, with 10,000 of them 16 to 40 years
of age {ibid). The deportation on foot from Budapest to the Strasshof Camp in
Austria (180 kilometers) began on November 8. On November 13, Veesen-
meyer reported {ibid):

“According to information received from SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Eichmann,
about 27,000 Jews of both sexes capable of marching and working have been
marched off to the Reich. ”

Kastner states that on November 16, 1944, SS Obergruppenfiihrer Hans
Jiittner, accompanied by SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Hermann Krumey and
Hoss, came to Budapest from Vienna, and along the way saw numerous bod¬
ies left be hi nd by the marching columns. As soon as they arrived, they ex¬
pressed their indignation to Becher. Hoss, Kastner points out, was “very in¬
dignant” and added that he had come “from Hi mm ler’s headquarters, where
he had been informed about the ‘ Reichsfiihrer’s new attitude.’” The next day,
Jiittner ordered the cessation of the foot marches (Kastner/Landau, p. 233).

This therefore seems to be Hoss’s only real visit to Budapest, but the rea¬
sons he has given are completely invented.

43. Hoss’s Transfer to Office Group D at the WVHA

According to his service record, Hoss was transferred to Berlin on November
10, 1943. 225 SS Oberstunnbannfuhrer Liebehenschel took over as comman¬
dant of Auschwitz on November 11, as shown by Garrison Order No. 59/43 of
November 11, 1943, which also mentions the new organization of the Ausch¬
witz Camp in three parts as ordered by Himmler: Camp I (Main Camp,
Stammlager), II (Women’s Camp, Frauenlager) and III (Subcamps, Aufienla-
ger, Frei et al., p. 358). The new organization of Auschwitz was promulgated
with Garrison Order No. 53/43 of November 22, 1943 {ibid., pp. 366fi). Hoss
was promoted Head of Office DI of the WVHA and became deputy of the In¬
spector of Concentration Camps. The “transcript” of the handwritten state¬
ment of March 14, 1946 calls that office “Political Dept. Intelligence, Weap¬
ons and Machinery, and Motor Transportation” (p. 5) and defines its task as
follows:

225 p orm without letterhead indicating Hoss’s ranks and military career. Friedman, T., pp. 1, 3.

308

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“My area of responsibility was the Political Dept, of the INTELLIGENCE
WAFFEN SS AND MACHINERY and the ENTIRE MOTOR TRANSPORTA¬
TION, always for all camps. At the same time, I had to audit all concentration
camps with regard to all these areas. The activity of the Pol. Dept, extended to
handling the criminal complaints submitted by the camp commanders. Appli¬
cations for death penalties, for example in the case of particularly severe cases
of sabotage in armament plants, robberies, in case of escapes and the like. ”

The organigram of the SS WVHA as approved by Hi mm ler on March 3, 1942,
shows that Office DI (Central Office), at that time directed by SS Obersturm-
bannfiihrer Liebehenschel, was subdivided into five departments as follows: 226
D 1/1: Inmate affairs ( Haft I ingsangelegenhei ten)

D 1/2: Intelligence ( Nachrichtenwesen )

D 1/3: Moor Transportation ( Kraftfahrwesen )

D 1/4: Weapons and machinery ( Waffen und Gerate)

D 1/5: Education of the troops ( Schulung der Truppe )

The subsequent organigram, which mentions Hoss as the head of Office D I,
gives the same subdivisions, although Department D 1/2 was renamed to “In¬
telligence, camp protection and guard dogs” (NO-2672).

While in prison in Krakow, Hoss wrote extensively about his new assign¬
ment in a paper titled “Office Chief at the Inspectorate of the Concentration
Camps (Nov. 1943 - May 1945),” without, however, mentioning the term
“Political Department.”

During the interrogation on April 1, 1946, however, Hoss denied his in¬
volvement in the inspectorate by asserting:

“I didn ’t have anything to do with the inspectorate of a concentration camp. ”

Only a few days later, however, in the affidavit of April 5, he contradicted
himself bluntly:

“I personally supervised executions at Auschwitz until the first of December
1943 and know by reason of my continued duties in the Inspectorate of Con¬
centration Camps WVHA that these mass executions continued as stated
above. ”

On April 9, he told Goldensohn:

“I went to the headquarters in Oranienburg to work for the inspector of con¬
centration camps. ”

44. The Assignment of March 1945

In March 1945, Hoss allegedly was assigned a job which is described on page
6 of the “transcript” of his handwritten statement of March 14, 1946:

226 AGK, NTN, 116, p. 120.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

309

“I undertook my last and most important inspection trip together with Ober-
gruppenf. POHL and Dr. LOLLING in March 1945. We visited the camps
NEUENGAMME BERGEN BELSEN BUCHENWALD DACHAU and
FLOSSENBURG. I myself then parted from Obergruppenfuhrer POHL and
together with Dr. LOLLING also visited LEITMERITZ near AUSSIG on the
ELBE, a larger labor camp. The reason for this trip was an order from the
Reichsfiihrer, which Obergruppenf. POHL had to deliver personally to all the
camp commanders, that no Jew was to perish any more by any means, and
that the mortality of the inmates in general had to be combated with all avail¬
able means. ”

The story is contradictory and nonsensical. As I have shown earlier, Hoss had
claimed that Himmler’s alleged order had been issued in October or Novem¬
ber 1944. In his essay “The ‘Final Solution...,’” he asserted that “in the au¬
tumn of 1944, the Reichsfiihrer SS ordered an immediate halt to the extermi¬
nation of the Jews.” (My emphasis; Broszat 1981, p. 164; Bezwinska/Czech
1984, pp. 122f.)

Hence, there is no way that a Himmler order from November 1944 at the
latest which was to be implemented instantly still would have been carried out
as late as March 1945, and that Pohl, the head of the WVHA, had to bring it
personally to commanders of all the concentration camps!

To completely examine the documentation, the British intercepts do not
provide any information on Hoss’s activities at Auschwitz and Berlin. From
the intercepts of June 19 and 24, 1942, we learn that Hoss was invited to a
“discussion” (“ Besprechung ”) to be held in Berlin on June 26, 1942 “at SS
Brigadefuhrer Dr. Kammler’s.” 227 An intercept of September 26 states that
“rubber bludgeons” could not be procured in Breslau. 228 On October 6, we
learn that Hoss had fallen off his horse the previous day and was admitted to
the “SS reserve hospital Nikolai”; the diagnosis was “broken rips.” 229 In a
message of November 12, 1943, Obersturmbannfiihrer “Hoesz” asked to be
accommodated in Oranienburg on Nov. 21 and 22. 230

No document relating to Hoss contains even a veiled hint at his supposed
extermination activity of the Jews. Here it is worth recalling Maximilian von
Herff s assessment, at that time the head of the Hi mm ler’s personal staff, who
met the then commander of Auschwitz during a trip to the General Govern¬
ment (occupied Poland) in May 1943: 231
“ Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Camp Commandant SS Obersturmbannfiihrer Hoess .

227 TNA, ZIP/GPDD 146/1.7.42. German Police Decodes Nr 3 Traffic: 24.6.42, 32; ZIP/GPDD
131/24.6.42. German Police Decodes Nr 3 Traffic: 19.6.42, 3-4.

228 TNA, ZIP/GPDD 248a/l.10.42. Gennan Police Decodes Nr 3 Traffic: 26.9.42, 12.

229 TNA, ZIP/GPDD 259b/25.10.42. German Police Decodes Nr 3 Traffic: 7.10.42, 14f„ 48f.

230 TNA, ZIP/GPDD 295b/12.2.43. German Decodes Nr 3 Traffic: 12.11.42.

231 “Abschrift der Beurteilungsnotiz anlasslich der Dienstreise des SS-Gruf. v. Herff durch das Gene-
ralgouvemement im Mai 1943.” Friedman, T., p. 30.

310

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

Good appearance as a soldier, athletic, horseman, knows how to behave in
eveiy situation, calm and modest, yet determined and factual. Does not push
himself to the fore, but lets his achievements speak for themselves.

H. is not only a good camp commander, but has had trailblazing effects in the
area of concentration camps with new’ ideas and new educational methods. He
is a good organizer and a good farmer, and an exemplary German pioneer for
the eastern territories.

H. is absolutely capable of being employed in leading positions in the area of
the concentration camp system. His particular strength is acting in the field. ”

Is this the kind of information Himmler wanted to know if he really ordered
Hoss to turn Auschwitz into an extermination camp?

45. The Gypsies at Auschwitz

In his chronology of Himmler’s visit to Auschwitz in July 1942 as written
down in his “autobiography,” Hoss wrote:

“He saw everything exactly and truthfully — and save us the order to extermi¬
nate them , after those fit to work had been selected, as with the Jews. [...] This
took two years. The gypsies fit for labor were transferred to other camps. As of
August 1944, some 4,000 gypsies remained there who had to go into the gas
chambers. ” (My emphasis)

In Hoss’s profile of Himmler, he reports that on July 18, 1942, the Reichsfiih-
rer SS ordered him:

“The Gypsies are to be exterminated. The Jews unfit for work are to be exter¬
minatedjust as ruthlessly. ”

In Section 28, I demonstrated the entire absurdity of this tale, deriving fore¬
most from the fact that at this time the Gypsy camp did not even exist yet.

According to the orthodox Auschwitz narrative, the Gypsies are said to
have been gassed on August 2, 1944. This propaganda story, which is devoid
of any foundation (see Mattogno 2016g, pp. 167-172), was also known to the
American investigators, who on April 16 interrogated Hoss on this matter:

"Q. Turning now to the month of August, 1944, we are told that 4,000 Gypsies
from the Gypsy camp in Birkenau were gassed to death under Moll’s supervi¬
sion. Do you know anything about that?

A. Well, / know that it is a fact that the Gypsies from Birkenau were gassed. I
was not in Auschwitz at the time, therefore I can not confirm the exact number.
/ know that Moll, at that time, was employed in the extermination camp, how¬
ever, since I wasn ’t there, I cannot say with certainly whether Moll was in
charge of that particular operation. ”

But how can it be explained that an alleged Himmler order from summer 1942
was executed only more than two years later? To make this “plausible,” Hoss

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

311

invented a conflict between Office IV (Gestapo) and Office V (Criminal Po¬
lice), which eventually led to the “decree” of gasification!

“Q. Have you any idea of the number of Hungarian Gypsies? [sic] Was it hun¬
dreds or thousands?

A. If I can remember correctly, it might have 3,500, but I do not recall exactly.
Originally there were 10,000 of them. Inasmuch as the R.S.H.A. IV and V did
not carry thru the job correctly, the original police branch office did not carry
thru the decrees properly and in the course of years a considerable number of
these Gypsies were released and were later transferred to other camps. When
finally the decree from [Office] Vfor gassing, there were three and one half to
four thousand prisoners still there, but I cannot state with certainly that this
figure is correct. ”

During his trial in Warsaw, Hoss regurgitated this imaginary story and embel¬
lished it even more imaginatively:

President: At that time did the crematoria already exist?

Defendant: No, at that time the crematoria did not yet exist, there were only
the so-called bunkers, that is, provisional installations.

President: Did the defendant carry out Himmler’s order?

Defendant: I could not carry it out. After receiving the order, I also thought
that his order regarding the arrest of the Gypsies by the criminal police office
aimed at something different [that is, had a purpose different than extermina¬
tion], and there were many gypsies in the camp which, according to the direc¬
tives, should not have been in this camp in general. When I told him this, he
told me that the Reich’s criminal police had to cariy out a ‘purging ’ operation
immediately. Regarding persons of gypsy ethnicity who were mistakenly in¬
terned at the camp, it was difficult to transfer them, and this order could only
be executed at the end of 1944. At the time there were still about 4,000 persons
of gypsy ethnicity [in the camp] who were then completely exterminated. Most
of them [the others] had already been released from detention or had been
transferred to other camps. ”

46. The Revolt of a Transport from Bergen-Belsen

The “transcript” of the handwritten statement of March 14, 1946 contains a
very detailed discussion of transports from the Bergen-Belsen Camp:

“It happened on occasion that inmates realized what this was about, especial¬
ly the transports from BELSEN knew, for most of them came from the east,
when the trains had reached the region of Upper Silesia, that they were most
likely being taken to their extermination. During transports from BELSEN, se-

312

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

curity measures were reinforced, and the transports were split up in small
groups, and these groups were then divvied up among the crematoria to pre¬
vent riots. SS men formed a tight chain and pushed resisters by force into the
gassing rooms. This happened only rarely, though, for the reassuring
measures simplified the procedure. ”

This is followed by the tale of the rebellion of prisoners in a crematorium,
which Hoss retold during his trial in Warsaw. It already appeared in the report
of the “Great Pole” Jerzy Wesoloski, alias Tabeau, who fled from the Ausch¬
witz Camp on December 19, 1943. In early 1944, he wrote a Polish report
which was translated into German and published as a mimeograph copy in
August 1944 by Abraham Silberschein. This German translation was subse¬
quently translated into English and published in November 1944 by the War
Refugee Board. 232

In its German translation, the anecdote, to which an entire paragraph was
devoted, was presented in this way (Silberschein, pp. 69f.):

“ Women defend themselves.

In one single case, the reflex of self-defense was fully successful. This was in
September or October 1943. At night, a woman transport came into the crema¬
torium. The escorting SS men swooped among the arrivals, ordered them to
undress, and drove them into the chamber. This was the best opportunity to
steal: to pilfer rings, wedding bands, watches and other jewelry. Those who do
this have to maltreat their victims in order to have an explanation for their
presence there and to maintain the appearance that they only perform an offi¬
cial function. In the ensuing turmoil, a woman snatched the revolver from
Scharfiihrer Schiller, and wounded him with three bullets, so that he died the
next day. This was the signal for the rest of the women to lunge for the SS men.
They bit off the nose of one of them; another one had his head bashed in. Not
one managed to get away. But the result was a decree that SS men were not al¬
lowed to stay inside the camp after eight o 'clock, and that in the camp itself the
conditions for the Jews became somewhat more moderate. The extermination
operation of the Jews itself, however, was continued without regard for the
improvement of the camps. The attempt was made to keep this event as a great
secret. ”

If one considers that Tabeau had escaped one or two months after the alleged
event, his description would be the first version of the anecdote.

By April 1945, it had already changed radically, as may be seen from the
version told by Stanislaw Jankowski, alias Alter Feinsilber: 233

“In the winter of the turn of the year 1943/44 a transport of 1750 American
subjects came to Birkenau from Warsaw, which included men, women and

2,2 War Refugee Board 1944. The report was sent to the War Refugee Board on October 12, 1944 by
Roswell D. MacClelland, who outlined the story in a nutshell, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Box
No. 6.

233 Deposition by Stanislaw Jankowski of April 16, 1945. Bezwinska/Swiebocka, pp. 47f.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

313

children. These people had been told that there were going to Switzerland. Af¬
ter arriving in Birkenau, these arrivals asked the inmates of ‘Canada ’for help,
why they had been brought here, what kind of fate awaited them, and if they
were to be murdered here, they asked these inmates of ‘Canada' for assis¬
tance, since they themselves owned weapons, and they could liberate them¬
selves together. However, the inmates of ‘Canada ’ did not give them any in¬
formation. The whole transport was brought to Crematoria II and III There
they learned from someone that they were going to their death, and then a
woman of this transport snatched the revolver from Quackernack and shot
Rapportfuhrer Schillinger. Other women also lunged at the SS men. The SS
men demanded reinforcement; after its arrival, the majority of the transport
was shot and murdered with grenades; the rest was gassed in Crematorium
III. The corpses were burned in Crematoria II and III ”

In 1946, Eugen Kogon recounted yet another version (Kogon 1946, p. 132):
“The Rapportfuhrer Schillinger made an Italian dancer perform naked in front
of the crematory. At an opportune moment she approached him, yanked his
pistol away, and shot him down. In the ensuing melee the woman was likewise
shot, and so she escaped death by gassing. ”

The final version of the account was compiled by Danuta Czech in 1962. To
give it at least a semblance of credibility, she first invented the date, October
23, 1943. Then she compiled the story by putting together all available
sources (Czech 1962, pp. 72fi):

“RSHA transport, 1,700 Jews (of different nationalities) from the Bergen-
Belsen CC. Those admitted were told they were going to Switzerland. They
learned on the unloading ramp in Birkenau, however, that they had been lied
to and that they were in the extermination camp. Then a woman snatched an
SS man’s revolver and shot Oberscharfiihrer Schillinger and Unterscharfuhrer
Emmerich. Other women lunged with bare hands at the SS men. The latter
called for help. After their arrival, some of the inmates were shot and killed
with granades, the rest was gassed in Crematorium III. The corpses were
burned in Crematoria II and III. ”

In the final version of her Kalendarium, Czech retold the same story, beefed
up with further details (Czech 1989, pp. 636-638). There are now 1,800 depor¬
tees, plus 70 more that were added at the last moment. In tribute to Tabeau’s
account, Czech claims that most of the deportees had obtained a passport for a
Latin American country “for a high fee with the approval of the Gestapo in the
Warsaw Hotel Polski.” Hence, we are supposed to believe that these Jews
from Warsaw were first sent to Bergen-Belsen, but were then transferred back
to the east, to Birkenau! Czech insists furthermore that “SS Oberscharfiihrer
Schillinger died on the way to the hospital; SS Unterscharfuhrer Emmerich
recovers after some time, but retains a paralyzed leg.” (ibid., p. 638).

314

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

The story told by the former detainees and enriched by Czech is the drama¬
tization and mythification of a real event that took place in October 1943. As
far as is known, it is mentioned only in the recommendation for the confer¬
ment of the German military award Kriegsverdienstkreuz II. Klasse (KVK) to
SS Rottenfiihrer Rudolf Grimm and SS Schiitze Fritz Lackner on December
13, 1943. The relevant document states: 234

“During the suppression of the mutiny on the occasion of a transport of Jews
in October of this year, G. [rimm] has contributed significantly to stop the re¬
volt by prudent, determined conduct, and thereby helped to free endangered
comrades from a threatening situation. In recognition of his merits, G. is rec¬
ommended for the conferment of the KVK. ”

“During the suppression of the mutiny on the occasion of a transport of Jews
in October, Z.[ackner] has shown particuarly prudent conduct and has freed
several comrades from a critical situation. Hence he is recommended for the
conferment of the KVK. ”

Although the revolt took place while Floss was still commandant of the camp,
these two proposals were signed by Liebehenschel. They were eventually ac¬
cepted: Grimm and Lackner were awarded the KVK on January 30, 1944,
along with 17 other SS men (including Dr. Wirths). 235

Of course, the fact that a revolt occurred in October 1943 “on the occasion
of a transport of Jews” does not render the narrations of former detainees true,
just as the fact that there were four crematoria in Birkenau does not mean that
the stories about homicidal gassing are true.

The documents quoted above make no reference to crematoria, and refute,
rather than confirm, that during this revolt any SS man lost his life. They both
emphasize that several SS men were merely freed “from a threatening” or “a
critical situation.”

A transport from Bergen-Belsen to Auschwitz on October 23, 1943 is not
documented. Furthermore, no document exists proving Schillinger’s alleged
death. FTis name appears in the Headquarters Order No. 17/42 of September
11, 1942, where his promotion to SS Unterscharfiihrer is announced (Frei et
al., p. 172). After that, he no longer appears in the documents of the Ausch¬
witz garrison. The Garrison Order issued right after this alleged event, no.
48/43 of November 2, 1943, contains no reference to him (ibid., pp. 355f.).
This stands in stark contrast to the fate of the three SS Unterscharfiihrer who
died during the revolt of the Sonderkommando on October 7, 1944 - Rudolf
Erler, Willi Freese and Josef Purke. All three were mentioned with praise in
Garrison Order No. 26/44 of October 12, 1944 (“On Saturday, Oct. 7, 1944, in
fulfilling their duty true to their oath to the Ftihrer, killed by the enemy
were...”; ibid., p. 499).

234 Vorschlagliste Nr. 3 (20a) fair die Verleihung des Kriegsverdienstkreuzes II. Klasse mit Schwer-
tem. Auschwitz, Dec. 13, 1943. NARA, RG No. 242/338, Roll No. 18, Frame No. 000480.

235 Standortbefehl Nr. 5/44 of Feb. 1, 1944; Frei et al., pp. 401f.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

315

Schillinger’s signature, together with his rank, appears in a “report” dated
October 20, 1943, with which he reported detainee No. 79757, Szmul Kohn
(Strzelecka, p. 172). This explains why Czech assigned her invented date of
October 23 to her conjured-up transport from Bergen-Belsen.

The version of this event that Hoss was made to “confess” made even less
sense: the deportees, “especially the transports from BELSEN,” kn ew that
they were sent to Birkenau in order to be exterminated, “for most of them
came from the east, when the trains had reached the region of Upper Silesia.”
If that was the reason, this would of course apply to all the transports from oc¬
cupied Poland, who all should have had that knowledge, hence all of them
should have revolted. Moreover, if we follow the Auschwitz Kalendarium, on¬
ly one transport from Bergen-Belsen ever arrived at Auschwitz, recorded by
Czech for June 12, 1944 (Czech 1989, 797).

Otto Wolken’s “quarantine list” (Czech’s source), however, gives June 6 as
the date, not June 12, for the registration of eight(!) Hungarian Jews from
Bergen-Belsen, who were registered with the numbers 189091-189098. 28
more were alleged gassed. 236 The Quarantine Camp (Blla) was a camp section
for male inmates. Hence, the entire transport contained at most a few dozen
detainees. According to Hoss’s statement, however, the transport from Ber¬
gen-Belsen was much more numerous. He knew nothing of Schillinger and
the “revolver,” and merely reported that an SS man had been “stabbed.” The
climax of Hoss’s story is that he claimed to have personally intervened in this
legendary event! According to his version, all the other SS men proved to be
inept, and the only hero deserving the KVK medal was Hoss himself!

It stands to reason that the anecdote was suggested to or imposed upon
Hoss by his British interrogator. This would also explain the nonsensical ref¬
erence to Bergen-Belsen: such a tale had probably been told during the Belsen
trial, which had been staged by the British between September 17 and No¬
vember 17, 1945, during which many witnesses talked liberally about Ausch¬
witz.

47. Did Hoss’s Wife Know of the Extermination?

In his various statements made to the British and Americans, Hoss consistent¬
ly stated that his wife was aware of the extermination of the Jews. He told the
story of Gauleiter Bracht, who is said to have spilled the beans about the ex¬
termination in the presence of Hoss’s wife, who then allegedly urged her hus¬
band to tell her the “truth.” This anecdote emerged during the interrogation of
April 8, 1946: 237

236 GARF, 7021-108-50, p. 65; APMO, D-AuII-3/1, “Quarantaneliste p. 5.

237 NARA, RG 238, M1270, OCCPAC. Interrogation Records Prepared for War Crimes Proceedings
at Nuernberg 1945-1947, Rudolf Hoss. Testimony of Rudolph Hoess, taken at Numberg, Germa-

316

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“Q. You just said that your wife never mentioned these facts to your son. She
knew about it, did she?

A. Yes, she learned about it from the Gauleiter.

Q. And she stayed with you?

A. She couldn't leave me very well. She couldn’t run away.

Q. Did she ask you anything about it?

A. She didn’t ask me about the details but she did ask whether it was true,
what the Gauleiter had told her.

Q. And your answer?

A. I answered yes, and told her why it was necessary according to the order I
had receivedfrom Himmler. ”

Within a few days, Hoss repeated this story many times, starting the day after
during his exchange with Goldensohn:

“In 1942 she heard a remark made by party> district administrator Bracht of
Upper Silesia, who referred to the extermination program, and then she be¬
lieved it. After that she asked me about it and I told her. ”

The anecdote reappears in his “Curriculum Vitae” of April 10, and also on
April 15 in his deposition during the Nuremberg Tribunal:

“At the end of 1942 my wife’s curiosity was aroused by remarks made by the
then Gauleiter of Upper Silesia, regarding happenings in my camp. She asked
me whether this was the truth and / admitted that it was. ”

Yet in his “autobiography,” he suddenly claimed the opposite:

“My wife could not understand my gloomy moods, blaming trouble at work for
them. [...] But what did my wife know about the thinzs that oppressed me — she
never found out about them . ” (My emphasis)

48. The Initiator and Executor of the “First Gassing”

Hoss attributed the idea of the “first gassing” to Fritzsch (see Section 17),
while the Polish witnesses during the Hoss Trial in Warsaw, starting with
Michal Kula, identified Palitzsch as the actual performer of that gassing (see
Section 37). Hence, there were two “benefactors” of the National Socialist
cause on whom great honors ought to have been bestowed. But Hoss’s judg¬
ment, as laid out in his profiles, is very different.

SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Karl Fritsch TFritzschl. 238

Though Fritzsch was the First Leader of the Protective-Custody Camp of
Auschwitz and “Deputy of the Commandant,” Hoss described him as a bad
asset: he was impatient and undisciplined, sabotaged his own orders and later

ny, 8 April 1946, 1445 - 1630, by Mr. S. Jaari. Also present: George Sackheim, Interpreter; Piila-
ni A. Ahuna, Court Reporter, pp. 19f.

238 Hoss Trial, Vol. 21, pp. 256-259.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

317

blamed his subordinates for it, was tough with the detainees and at once can¬
tankerous, quarreling continuously with everyone. Hoss tried to get him re¬
moved from office several times, but without success. Finally, Glucks inter¬
vened and transferred him to Flossenbiirg (March 1942). Hoss does not say a
single word about Fritzsch’s alleged “discovery” - the first alleged use of
Zyklon B to kill humans.

Since this discovery, both in the context of Hoss’s declarations and with
regard to the orthodox Auschwitz narrative, is of vital importance, Fritzsch
should have received a promotion and the full support of Hoss, Eichmann and
Himmler, if we follow the logic of orthodox historiography!

SS Hauptscharfiihrer Palitsch TPalitzschl. 239

For Hoss, Rapportfiihrer Palitzsch was a delinquent. Hoss worked in cahoots
with the 2nd Leader of the Protective-Custody Camp Maier and with a detain¬
ee named Meyer; on this trio one could have written “the most riveting gang¬
ster novel.” The judgment of the former Auschwitz commandant was unalter¬
able:

“Palitsch was the most cunning and devious creature I have ever got to know
and experience during my long, variegated time of service at the various con¬
centration camps. He literally climbed over dead bodies in order to satisfy his
lust for power! ”

Regarding his activities within the alleged extermination of the Jews, Palitzsch
committed “the most killings by shooting in the neck” while remaining utterly
impassive, Hoss claimed.

“Even during his shift at the gas chambers, / could not notice even the slight¬
est trace of sadism. His face was always withdrawn and motionless. He was
even mentally so calloused that he could kill uninterruptedly without thinking
about it. ”

As I pointed out earlier, Palitzsch is considered the actual perpetrator of the
“first gassing,” but the former Auschwitz commandant did not know anything
about it. During the interrogation of April 3, 1946, he declared:

“Q. What was Palitsch's additional job, besides being Rapportfuehrer?

A. He was always Rapportfuehrer.

Q. Didn ’t he take a special interest in executions?

A. His job and title was Rapportfuehrer, but he was also used like the other
non-commissioned leaders in executions, as, for instance, Moll. ”

Hoss mentioned Palitzsch’s arrest only in passing, but without explaining
what his fate was. It is kn own that Palitzsch was arrested after October 1943,
and that he was interned in the SS Penal Camp at Danzig-Matzkau 240 - a
strange fate for this “benefactor” of the extermination.

239 Ibid., pp. 271-273.

240 Aleksander Lasik, "Taterbiographien,” in: Staatliches Museum..., p. 292.

318

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

49. Karl Bischoff, the Inventor of the “Plans for the Gas
Chambers”

The information provided by Hoss in his profile of the head of the Auschwitz
Central Construction Office is meager and useless in relation to Bischoff s re¬
sponsibilities (Paskuly, pp. 235f.). He “was appointed construction chief [=
Leiter der Bauleitiing ] on November 1, 1941” {ibid., p. 235). The Polish trans¬
lation states instead correctly “Oct. 1, 1941” (Glowna Komisja... 1956, p.
326).

Hoss’s description of Bischoff s activities at Auschwitz is at best evasive:

“From the very beginning he correctly assessed the terrible conditions at
Auschwitz. Fie threw himself completely into his work until he dropped so that
he could push Auschwitz’s construction projects ahead. Bischoff and I had
many serious arguments because he could not see the need to modify the se¬
quence of the projects. I was often forced to change plans because of unfore¬
seen events. He could not see that, or he would view it only from a technical
standpoint as a builder. ”

Other controversies concerned Bischoffs request to employ detainees at dif¬
ferent construction sites, rejected by Hoss for security reasons, and his convic¬
tion that civilian workers were indispensable for his work, opposed by the
camp commandant due to the great difficulties of surveillance resulting from it
(Paskuly, pp. 235f.):

“So there was friction between us which could not be resolved until Kammler
took Bischoff aside and gave him hell. But in spite of everything, Bischoff
worked to build up Auschwitz as if he were possessed. ”

Apart from being shallow, this profile is also extremely imaginary. Karl Bis¬
choff was transferred to Auschwitz with the rank of SS Hauptsturmfuhrer on
October 1, 1941, taking over the management of the Auschwitz Construction
Office from SS Untersturmfuhrer August Schlachter. This office was promot¬
ed on November 14 of that year to the status of a Central Construction Office.
Bischoff was promoted to SS Sturmbannfuhrer on February 1, 1943. On Oc¬
tober 1, he handed over that post to SS Obersturmfiihrer Werner Jothann, and
was himself promoted to Head of Construction Inspectorate of the Waffen-SS
and Police Silesia.

In Auschwitz-Birkenau, the inmates were employed in over 100 labor
units, only a few of which were part of the Central Construction Office (Mat¬
togno 2015d, pp. 637-639, 658-661). After 1940, private companies were
hired who employed civilian workers. On June 4, 1943, 31 such companies
worked inside the camp, but the highest total number was at least 46. In No¬
vember 1941, 800 civilian workers were deployed in the camp. The highest
known number, 1,302, was reached in September 1943 (Mattogno 2015c, pp.
53-58). They worked alongside the detainees. For example, the “Construction

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

319

Report for the Month of March 1942” reports the following staff employed at
the construction of the camp: 930 civilian workers, 2,850 inmates, 380
PoWs. 241

The story of the insurmountable conflicts between Hoss and Bischoff, and
Bischoff s subsequent rebuke by Kammler is therefore completely unfounded.

As is well-known, the Birkenau crematoria were built under the direction
of Bischoff, but Hoss did not write or say a word about this.

50. SS Sturmbannfiihrer Eduard Wirths

To SS Sturmbannfiihrer Dr. Eduard Wirths, who occupied the post of SS Gar¬
rison Physician of Auschwitz, Hoss imputes in the “transcript” of his hand¬
written statement of March 14, 1946 “Experiments with injections of hydro¬
gen cyanide to induce the death of such individuals who had recently been
sentenced to death by the Gestapo.” Hoss does not say whence Dr. Wirths ob¬
tained the liquid hydrogen cyanide that would have been necessary for these
injections.

Wirths had been arrested by the British on July 20, 1945. During his inter¬
rogations he never confirmed to have carried out such experiments. Of those
experiments that were actually conducted in Auschwitz, he stated that he was
“responsible for these only as the official superior, not as the scientific super¬
visor,” and he also denied “that these experiments were in any way pseudo¬
medical. These were trials for the advancement of scientific knowledge which
could solve legitimate scientific medical questions” (Wieland, p. 231). In his
Krakow notes devoted to Wirths, written in November 1946, 242 Hoss made on¬
ly one single fleeting reference to experiments conducted by the garrison phy-

• • 243

sician:

“With his conscientious scrupulosity and caution, he has [conducted] all the
experiments with Cyklon B - the preparation of the hydrogen-cyanide solution
for injections, and his attempts to conduct mass delousings with that product
without harming anyone repeatedly caused himself serious harm, until I strict¬
ly forbade him this. ”

This reference is even more terse than the one in the “transcript” of his initial
statement, but just as implausible: where in Auschwitz could Wirths have ob¬
tained liquid hydrogen cyanide for the “preparation of the hydrogen-cyanide
solution”? The reference to the presumed criminal nature of the “experiments”
is rather vague (“for injections”), while the disinfestation “attempt” did not
aim at killing people but rather at saving human lives through mass delousing
operations.

241 RGVA, 502-1-24, p. 380.

242 “Sturmbannfiihrer Dr. Eduard Wirths.” Hoss Trial, Vol. 21, pp. 145-148.

243 Ibid., p. 145.

320

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

No document exists on Wirths’s alleged criminal experiments, and no ac¬
cusation was officially formulated against him.

During the Nuremberg trial against several top physicians of the Third
Reich (“Karl Brandt, et al .,” The Medical Case), Wirths played no role, be¬
cause accusations like these could only come from the fantasies of former
prisoners.

Hoss’s portrait of the SS Garrison Physician of Auschwitz in his profile is
very positive overall:

“His cancer research in connection with his brother and, as far as I know, the
few surgical interventions in this field were not injurious. But the findings of
this research are of the utmost importance for the whole medical world; they
were unique, as far as / know. ”

51. SS Obergruppenfiihrer Emst-Robert Grawitz

Grawitz was implicated in the alleged Jewish extermination by former SS
judge Konrad Morgen, who in an affidavit dated 13 July 1946, document
SS(A)-65, stated (IMT, Vol. XLII, p. 559):

“For the purpose of implementing of the mass extermination ordered by Hit¬
ler, Himmler had asked him [Grawitz] at that time to propose a killing proce¬
dure which is both painless as well as protecting the victims from any fear of
death. For this reason, a procedure had been chosen which left those con¬
cerned in complete ignorance of their fate up to the moment of the unexpected
application of a fast-acting, highly volatile gas. ”

In another statement a few days later, Morgen asserted (IMT, Vol. XLII, pp.
563-565. Affidavit SS-67):

“1. The Reichsarzt SS, SS Gruppenfuehrer Dr. Grawitz told me that H i tier
himself had given the order to exterminate the Jews.

2. Historically, the extermination of the Jews began with the extermination of
the eastern Jew’s in Poland. This was done by the same method with gas, and
by the same unit which had previously carried out the annihilation of those
sufferingfrom incurable mental diseases in Germany. [...] The command ran
under the covert name ‘Aktion Reinhart’. [...]

3. H o e s s has entered the mass extermination with Auschwitz at a much,
much later time. Hoess only exterminated Jews who were unfit for work. Be¬
cause of his methods, Wirths described him as his untalented student. ”

Hoss kn ew nothing of those charges. In his view, Grawitz visited Auschwitz
twice, but he did not remember when. On one occasion,

“he saw the entire process of the extermination of the Jews, including the
burning of the bodies in the pits and the crematories. ” (Paskuly, p. 264)

According to Czech’s Kalendarium, Grawitz was only once in Auschwitz, on
September 25, 1942 (Czech 1989, p. 308). His arrival was mentioned by Dr.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

321

Johann Paul Kremer in his diary (Bezwinska/Czech 1997, p. 157; 1984, pp.
220f.):

“Gruppenfuhrer Grawitz visited the hospital and the camp. During the visit he
asked me what a physician should, first of all, prescribe in all cases of infec¬
tious diseases. ”

The claim that Grawitz had assisted in a gassing with subsequent cremation,
which is also claimed by Czech, has no documentary basis. Hoss’s statement
is also invalidated by his anachronistic reference to the Birkenau crematoria,
which at that time did not yet exist.

Hoss then focuses on the SS Oberfiihrer Joachim Mrugowski, who was the
head of the Hygienic Institute of the Waffen SS. In this context, Hoss speaks
of Zyklon B:

“If I remember correctly, the Cyclon B gas was manufactured by the Tesch
and Stabenow firm until 1942 in Hamburg. This is the gas that was used for
disinfection and also for the extermination of the Jews. It was procured by the
administration from Tesch and Stabenow. From 1942 on, all poison gas was
purchased for the SS by a central authority. Mugrowski [Mrugowski] was in
charge of the Hygienic Department and he alone was responsible for the
shipments of gas. So he was the one who continually had to get the gas for the
extermination of the Jews. Tesch and Stabenow was able to deliver the needed
amounts of gas by railroad on time until 1943. But after 1943 the increasing
Allied air raids made this impossible. Consequently, Auschwitz was forced a
few times to use trucks to get the gas from the manufacturing plant in Des¬
sau. ’’ (Paskuly, p. 264)

The next sentence is rather striking, considering that it was written by the
former Auschwitz commandant (ibid.):

“According to a British public prosecutor in Munich who brought indictments
against Tesch and Stabenow for delivering the gas to Auschwitz, according to
the books of that company a total of 19,000 kilograms [41,800 pounds] of Cy¬
clon B had been delivered to Auschwitz. ” (My emphasis)

Finally, Hoss reports on the role of ambulances in the extermination procedure
(ibid., p. 265):

“The Jews who could not walk were driven from the ramp to the gas chambers
in ambulances. If no trucks were available, the standby ambulances were used.
Because the medics were the ones who threw the gas into the gas chambers,
they would be driven with their cans of the gas to the gas chambers using the
ambulances when no other trucks were available. ”

Initially, Hoss claimed that inmates unable to walk were transported only by
truck, as he wrote in his handwritten statement of March 14, 1946 -

“At night all in/truck, during days only the sick and those unable to walk. ”

- and also in his note of April 23-24:

322

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“Those unable to walk and women with little children were brought there by
truck. ”

In Poland, however, he heard about an ambulance carrying the Zyklon B, and
hence confounded these two issues, claiming that ambulances also carried
those unable to walk.

52. Organization Schmelt

In the context of the present study, the Organization Schmelt has some rele¬
vance to the thesis posited by Robert Jan van Pelt:

“Auschwitz already had become the destination for one particular group of
Jews residing on Reich territory: those considered unfit for work in the so-
called Schmelt program. ” (Dwork/van Pelt, p. 301)

Since van Pelt had to give up Hoss’s chronology based on the fairy tale of
Himmler’s extermination order of June 1941, van Pelt was forced to re¬
interpret the entire genesis of the alleged extermination at Auschwitz. He did
this in a very imaginative paper that appeared in 2011. 244 In it, he stated about
the “gas chamber” of Crematorium I at the Auschwitz Main Camp (van Pelt
2011, p. 204):

“In early 1942, this gas chamber was also used for the first group of Jews.
They had been working for 'Organisation Schmelt’ [...]. In early 1942,
Schmelt decided that the ‘unfit ’ among them were to be killed, and he talked
Hofi into carrying out the dirty work at Auschwitz. ”

Needless to say, van Pelt does not substantiate these fantasies in any way, not
even with one miserable clue. It is worth remembering that Hoss explicitly
claimed that only Russian prisoners of war were gassed in that crematorium
(see Section 18).

Van Pelt has even the chutzpah to say that

“The Bunker began operating on 20 March 1942 when a small group of
‘Schmelt-Jews ’ was killed as an experiment. ” {Ibid., p. 207)

As I noted earlier (see Section 21), the dating of March 20, 1942 (but also the
very existence of the “bunker” as a gassing installation) has no foundation and
is purely imaginary. This applies also to van Pelt’s assertion: If Hoss had
gassed Jews of the Organization Schmelt who had become unfit for work in
the crematorium of the Main Camp and in “Bunker 1,” he would have at least
mentioned it in his declarations, but he did not.

The short profile of Schmelt written by the former Auschwitz commandant
sheds some light into this aspect and deserves to be translated in full: 245

244 van Pelt 2011, pp. 196-218; see ray critique: Mattogno 2016h, pp. 87-114.

245 “Organisation Schmelt,” Hoss Trial, Vol. 21, pp. 180-182.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

323

“After the annexation of East Upper Silesia into the Reich’s territory, SS Bri-
gadefuhrer Schmelt, who later became president of the district government in
Oppeln, was commissioned by the RF-SS [Himmler] to recruit for work for¬
eign workers, especially Jews who were unemployed, to create jobs for the
armaments plants and maintenance for the army. Schmelt built small labor
camps throughout the Silesian region, or workshops in idle factories in the
towns of Upper Silesia. After the end of their daily work, the workers working
in these workshops returned to their quarters or to the ghetto. These work¬
places and the armaments workshops operated under the direction of Schmelt,
who also hired supervisors. If the workers were not lodged in a camp, they re¬
ceived small remunerations. The profits from this work flowed to a special
fund at the disposal of the Gauleiter [District Leader] of Upper Silesia. I do
not know what was financed with it.

As far as I remember, Schmelt employed more than 50,000 Jews. How many
Poles and Czechs, I don't know.

Due to the extermination order of the RF-SS of summer 1941, the Organiza¬
tion Schmelt was forced to dissolve the labor camps and workshops where
Jews were employed, and to transport the Jews to Auschwitz.

Through persistent grave objections by the Wehrmacht and the armaments
units at the RSHA and at the RF-SS himself, the dissolution was always de¬
layed. Only in 1943 was the unambiguous RF-SS order issued to close the
workshops, to transfer the Jews together with the manufacture into the
Au. [schwitz] CC, and to maintain [only] the most important labor camps near
such armaments plants that were decisive for victory’, under the administration
of the Au. [schwitz] or Gro. [ss] Rosen CC. Work camps not belonging to the
above category were to be dissolved, and the inmates transferred to Auschwitz.
This operation was carried out completely in spring 1943.

The Schmelt labor camps were in a rather squalid state, undisciplined, and
had a high mortality rate. The bodies of the deceased were buried in the sur¬
rounding area in the camp. Medical care almost did not exist.

In the summer of 1942, on the urging of the Ministry of Armaments, Schmelt
had received the permission to extract 10,000 Jews from the transports from
the West in order to fill up the labor camps near the most important arma¬
ments projects. The sorting was carried out in Cosel (Upper Silesia) by a la¬
bor deployment leader of [Office] D II and by an appointee of Schmelt. Later,
Schmelt’s appointees repeatedly stopped transport trains on their own accord
in Upper Silesia without my knowledge and without permission by the RSHA,
and they exchanged Jews unfit for work or even dead Jews for healthy Jews fit
for work. There were therefore considerable difficulties, train delays, escapes,
etc., until the Higher SS and Police Leader Gruf. Schmauser, subsequent to my
complaints, finally put an end to this activity. ”

The Korherr Report of April 28, 1943 mentions the “Organization Schmelt,”
which encompassed 50,570 Jews (NO-5194, p. 13).

Van Pelt’s fantasies are therefore denied by his main witness: Rudolf Hoss.

324

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

53. SS Gruppenfiihrer Odilo Globocnik

Hoss’s profile of this individual refers to various aspects of his activity that
are of no interest for the present study. I therefore quote only what Hoss said
about him with regard to Auschwitz and the alleged eastern extermination
camps.

Immediately after the start of the war against the Soviet Union, Himmler
ordered Globocnik to build a concentration camp near Lublin, where huge
quantities of tools, clothes and food were to be collected.

“After this Glucks came to Auschwitz and ordered me to select the items we
needed and send a list to Lublin. With my administrative director, Wagner, I
immediately drove to see Globocnik. ”

This was Hoss’s first meeting with Globocnik (Paskuly, p. 253). Glucks had
accompanied Hi mm ler during his visit to Auschwitz on March 1, 1941.
Hence, Hoss’s trip to Lublin, for which no document is known to me, would
have taken place in April 1941, but at that time the Majdanek camp did not yet
exist. Himmler gave the construction order only three months later, on July
20, 1941 (Graf/Mattogno 2016a, p. 21).

The second meeting “was in the spring of 1943 in Lublin” (Paskuly, p.
254). There was also a third encounter “in the summer of 1943” {ibid.), which
is completely invented, as I explained in Section 9.

On the very important question of the alleged eastern extermination camps,
Hoss was very elusive. He wrote merely that Globocnik “wanted to extermi¬
nate the Jews” {ibid., p. 253) and that “he also considered Sobibor, Belzec and
Treblinka ‘his’ extermination centers” {ibid., p. 255), but he wrote nothing
about their origin, when and on whose order they were built.

Hoss learned only from his Polish captors that Globocnik had to be the
commander of these camps. His first reference in this regard appears in his
statement of January 11, 1947, but in the context of confused and freely in¬
vented claims (Alvensleben as the commander of Chelmno, a non-existing
Grudziadz extermination camp; see Section 9).

Hoss states that “of the three extermination sites under Globocnik’s com¬
mand I only saw Treblinka during an inspection which I have previously de¬
scribed” and mentions the establishment of the “Traviaka” camp, probably
meaning Trawniki {ibid.). Further on he refers to “Operation Reinhardt,” but
exclusively with reference to the confiscation of the deportees’ property {ibid.,
p. 256).

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

325

Conclusions

In this study, I have documented that all of Hoss’s statements about the Holo¬
caust are wrong, contradictory and absurd, and that his chronology of events is
purely fictitious, just as the events he wove into them (the gassings). In a
word, they are completely fabricated. How can this irrefutable fact be ex¬
plained?

The torture inflicted by the British on the former Auschwitz commandant
is undoubtedly an important but not the only explanation. The chronological
development of Hoss’s statements as presented in Part One highlights the de¬
velopment of his Holocaust knowledge, which shows a clear dependence on
the “knowledge” of the investigators - first the British, then the American and
finally Polish - who interrogated him.

He was clearly aware of the enormity of the accusations coming from wit¬
nesses, and at times, when they were going over the top, he also sought to lim¬
it these accusations quantitatively, but he fully accepted the basic thesis of the
extermination of the Jews by poison gas. Although at the beginning this thesis
was imposed upon him with torture, he then accepted it almost in good faith,
repeating it verbally and signing somewhat dubious statements. He always
provided the widest assurance that every single one of his statements con¬
tained the pure truth and had been made voluntarily by him. This is already
true for the supposed “transcript” of his handwritten statement of March 14,
1946, which he signed with his own hand, thus guaranteeing the authenticity
and truthfulness of this document with the following expression:

“I have read the text written above and confirm that it corresponds to my

statements and that it is the absolute truth. 14 mar 46. ”

Below this, a new date and time were handwritten together with Hoss’s signa¬
ture.

The affidavit of April 5, 1946, which is riddled with absurdities, closes
with this assurance:

“The above statements are true; this declaration is made by me voluntarily

and without compulsion. ”

On the same day, during the interrogation, Hoss swore:

“Q. In this affidavit it is stated that above statements are true, and this decla¬
ration is made voluntarily and without compulsion.

A. Yes, that is correct.

Q. And you swear to the accuracy of that affidavit?

A Yes. ”

326

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

In Nuremberg, when Colonel Amen read out loud the aforementioned affida¬
vit in the courtroom and then asked Hoss to confirm the truthfulness of every
single point, including his invented meeting with Himmler in 1941 and his
imaginary visit to Treblinka, Hoss committed perjury:

“Col. Amen: And the affidavit is true in all respects?

Hoess: Yes. [...]

“That is all true, Witness?. ”

“Yes, it is ” [response under oath].

Even in the “autobiography,” Hoss stated peremptorily that he had written
those annotations “truthfully and realistically as I saw it, as I experienced it.”

Hoss knew well that the stories he had told, with their many contradicting
versions, were false from start to finish, and he telling the untruth while being
fully aware that he was lying.

When Otto Moll, who had already been sentenced to death by the Dachau
Tribunal, asked for a confrontation with his former commander in order that
Hoss might exonerate him from the accusation that he had directed the homi¬
cidal gassing in Auschwitz, he was bewildered and incredulous when he heard
Hoss’s version, and he did not hesitate to say so: “He is the man who is ly¬
ing,” and he was perfectly right.

How can Hoss’s persistence in his lies be explained?

Two other factors were undoubtedly involved here: concern for his family,
and a kind of Stockholm syndrome. 246

Hoss’s military service papers indicate that he was married to Hedwig
Hensel on August 17, 1929 and had five children: Klaus-Bemdt, bom Feb. 6,
1930, Hans-Jtirgen, May 1, 1937, Heidetraut, April 9, 1932, Inge-Brigitte,
August 18, 1933, and a fifth daughter bom on September 30, 1943 whose
name Annegret is not indicated in that document. 247 His family was very dear
to him, and he had already explicitly stated to von Schirmeister that the well¬
being of his wife and children “was the only thing that worried him.” The
“Curriculum Vitae ” of April 10,1946 is entirely dedicated to his family, and
Hoss spoke about it also in his “autobiography” (Broszat 1981, p. 155):

“My family was my second sanctuary. / am firmly anchored in it. I was con¬
stantly worried about its future. [...] In our children we, my wife and I, saw our
lives’ purpose. [...] Even now my thoughts are centered mainly around my
family. What will become of them? This uncertainty about my family is what
makes my current imprisonment so difficult for me. I have given up on myself
right from the beginning — / am no longer worried about that; / am done with
it — but my wife, my children? ”

246 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrorae; editor’s remark.

247 Form without letterhead indicating Hoss’s ranks and "Personal - Nachweis fur Ftihrer der
Waffen-SS,” both undated; reproduced in: Friedman, T., pp. 1, 38.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

327

This sudden surge of emotions is revealing. Ever since he got arrested and
subsequently tortured and interrogated, Hoss understood perfectly well that he
had nowhere to escape. He knew very well that, being considered “the greatest
individual killer in the history of the world,” his fate was sealed. But the fate
of his family?

We remember that, in order to get Hoss’s wife Hedwig to reveal her hus¬
band’s hiding place, Bernard Clarke, or Howard Harvey Alexander, or more
likely both of them, threatened to deport her children to Siberia. Are we to be¬
lieve that a similar threat - the extradition of his entire family to the Soviets,
or a fate even worse than that - was not also uttered to Hoss in order to sup¬
press any thought of a retraction?

This explains his perseverance in the lie, but not the fervor with which he
embraced and repeated his imaginary stories.

Here enters the Stockholm Syndrome, which already appeared during his
exchanges with Goldensohn:

“Do you feel guilty, or merely a soldier who had done his duty? ‘Up until the
capitulation of Germany I believed / carried out orders correctly and acted in
the right manner. But after the capitulation, when I read newspaper reports of
the trials et cetera . I came to the conclusion that the necessity for extermina¬
tion of the Jews was not as they told me — now I am guilty, as are all of the
others, and / have to take the consequences. ’ What do you think your punish¬
ment should be? ‘ To be hanged . ' Do you really, or do you think that there are
others more guilty than you? ‘There are others more guilty than me, particu¬
larly those who gave me the orders, which were wrong. But as / saw it in the
trial in Belsen where SS men worked under the same orders as / had, I will
have to face the same punishment . ’ ” (My emphasis)

The Belsen Trial, as I explained earlier, was one of the indispensable sources
of information 248 of Hoss’s British and American interrogators from which
they derived the whole narrative which they made Hoss “confess.” Of course,
the former Auschwitz commandant was well aware of this fact himself, as can
be gleaned from what he told Goldensohn:

“But as / saw it in the trial in Belsen where SS men worked under the same
orders as / had, I will have to face the same punishment.

From Hoss’s writings he penned down while in Poland, his psychological sub¬
jection to his prisoners became very apparent and assumed the shape of an
embarrassing slavery. In his “autobiography,” he wrote:

“I have the say frankly that I never would have expected to be treated so de¬
cently and accommodatingly in Polish custody, as has been the case ever since
the prosecution had intervened. ”

248 The other sources were the reports on Auschwitz transmitted to the Polish Government in Exile in
London by the Delegatura, i.e. the representation of the Polish government in exile in Poland it¬
self.

328

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

“I would never have condescended to such a self-renunciation, to the revela¬
tion of my most secret me, had I not been met with such benevolence, with such
an understanding that disarmed me, which I could never ever have expected. I
owe it to this humane understanding to contribute everything I can in order to
elucidate unclarified connections as far as I possibly can. ”

On April 11, 1947, Hoss wrote to his wife (Paskuly, pp. 189f.):

“Most of the terrible and horrible things that took place there I learned only
during this investigation and during the trial itself \\\. I cannot describe how I
was deceived, how my directives were twisted, and all the things they had car¬
ried out supposedly under my orders. I certainly hope that the guilty will not
escape justice. [... ]

The next day, in his final declaration (“ Erklarung ”), he reiterated:

“It was only in Polish prisons that I learned what humanity is. In spite of all
that had happened, I have witnessed a humaneness which I had never expected
and which puts me deeply to shame. May the present revelations and depic¬
tions of the monstrous crimes committed against mankind and humanity lead
to the fact that for all the future already the preconditions for such gruesome
events are prevented. ”

This fell only barely short of thanking the Poles for “liberating” him with their
“humanity”!

This submissive and self-destructive attitude undoubtedly dependent to a
large degree on the fact that, after the treatment he had suffered under the Brit¬
ish, Hoss was a broken man, psychically speaking. This was also noticed by
the psychologists in Nuremberg. Gilbert stated:

“In all of the discussions Hoess is quite matter-of-fact and apathetic, shows
some belated interest in the enormity of his crime, but gives the impression
that it never would have occurred to him if somebody hadn 7 asked him. There
is too much apathy to leave any suggestion of remorse and even the prospect
of hanging does not unduly distress him. One gets the general impression of a
man who is intellectually normal but with the schizoid apathy, insensitivity’ and
lack of empathy that could hardly be more extreme in a frank psychotic. [...]

In the morning session, Colonel Hoess testified to the murder of 2 1/2 million
Jews under his direction at Auschwitz. It was all done at Himmler’s direct or-

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

329

ders as a Fiihrerbefehl (Fiihrer’s order) for the final solution of the Jewish
problem. (He gave his testimony in the same matter-of-fact, apathetic manner
as he had related to me in his cell.) ”

Goldensohn also remarked that “Hoess looked blank and apathetic.”

To sum up, from his first interrogation, which he had signed without even
knowing the contents, the British interrogators imposed upon Hoss by way of
torture the Auschwitz narrative outlined during the Belsen Trial, and Hoss
subsequently stuck to this version due to the well-founded fear of retaliation
against his family, who remained hostages of the British occupational authori¬
ties. His broken psyche made him uniquely subservient to his inquisitors, who
induced him to make ever increasing “confessions” along with the growing
amount of holocaust “information” they fed him, but at the same time this
prevented him from keeping control over the enormous mountain of lies he
was piling up - much of which he probably did not even remember - because
of the enormous amount of contradictions they contain, as well as the many
absurdities which are the most telling hallmarks of his lies.

Initially, Hoss was a coerced liar, but then he found a taste for the grand¬
iloquent lie.

C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

331

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C. Mattogno, R. Hoss ■ Commandant of Auschwitz

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